Trump Administration Seeks to Overturn Lower Court Ruling on Temporary Protected Status
The Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court for an emergency order to allow it to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The request, filed by the Justice Department, seeks to halt a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that found the administration’s termination of the protections was improper.
The case stems from the administration’s efforts to withdraw legal protections for various immigrant groups. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen had ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acted with “unprecedented haste” and an “unprecedented manner” in its decision-making process regarding Venezuela’s TPS designation. Chen’s ruling was subsequently upheld by the federal appeals court in San Francisco, which declined to put a hold on his decision while the case proceeds.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer, in the new court filing, cited a similar case from May in which the Supreme Court reversed a preliminary order from Judge Chen affecting another group of Venezuelan migrants. Sauer argued that the high court’s previous order should apply to the current case, stating that lower courts are “disregarding this Court’s orders on the emergency docket.” He claimed the new order, like the previous one, “halted the vacatur and termination of TPS affecting over 300,000 aliens based on meritless legal theories.”
The administration has previously moved to end TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians, whose protections were granted during the Biden administration. TPS, a program created by Congress in 1990, is designed to prevent deportations to countries experiencing natural disasters, civil strife, or other dangerous conditions. The designation is granted in 18-month increments by the Homeland Security secretary.
In her denial of the administration’s emergency appeal, Judge Kim Wardlaw, writing for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel, noted that Judge Chen determined that DHS “made its decisions first and searched for a valid basis for those decisions second.” The Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will hear the administration’s appeal.
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