The United States Supreme Court allowed the Government of Donald Trump on Monday to strip some 350,000 Venezuelans living in the country with the temporary protection status granted under the mandate of its predecessor Joe Biden, While the Republican President applies hard line measures against immigration.
The Court agreed to the request of the Department of Justice to raise the order of the Judge of the District Edward Chen, based in San Franciscowhich had paralyzed the decision of the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, to end the protection against deportation conferred on Venezuelans under the Temporary Protection Status Program, TPS.
The brief order of the court was not signed, as usual when the magistrates act before an emergency request. Liberal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only member of the court that publicly disseminated the decision.
The action is part of a lawsuit filed by some of the TPS beneficiaries and the National TPS Alliance defense group, who said that Venezuela remains an insecure country.
Trump, who returned to the presidency in January, promised to deport a record number of migrants who are illegally in the United States and took measures to strip certain migrants of temporary legal protections, expanding the number of possible deportees.
The TPS program is a humanitarian designation for countries affected by warsnatural disasters or other catastrophes, which offers beneficiaries who live in the United States protection against deportation and access to work permits. It can be renewed by the Secretary of National Security.
The American government of Democrat Biden twice appointed Venezuela for the TPS, in 2021 and 2023. In January, days before Trump returned to power, he announced an extension of the programs until 2026.
Noem, designated by Trump, annulled the extension and ended the designation of TPS for a subset of Venezuelans who benefited from the designation of 2023. The National Security Department said that around 348,202 Venezuelans were registered under that designation of 2023.
Cen ruled that Noem violated a federal law that governs the actions of the agencies. The judge also said that the revocation of status seemed to have been based on “negative stereotypes” by insinuating that Venezuelan migrants were criminals.
“The generalization of crime to the Venezuelan population with TPS as a whole lacks foundation and smells like racism based on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote, adding that Venezuelan TPS holders were more likely to be licensed than Americans and less likely to commit crimes than the American population in general.
The Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit of the United States, Based in San Francisco, he rejected on April 18 the government’s request to suspend the order of the judge.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice said in their presentation before the Supreme Court that Chen had “Covered the control of the Nation’s immigration policy” to the executive branch of the Government, headed by Trump.
“The Order of the Court contravenes the fundamental prerogatives of the Executive Power and indefinitely delays the sensitive political decisions in an area of the immigration policy that Congress recognized that it must be flexible, of rapid and discretionary rhythm, “they wrote.
The plaintiffs told the supreme to access the government’s request “He would deprive almost 350,000 people living in the United Stateswould expose deportation to an insecure country and cost billions in economic losses throughout the country. “
The State Department currently warns of trips to Venezuela “Due to the high risk of unfair arrests, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary application of local laws, crime, civil disturbances, poor health infrastructure“
The Trump government also ended the TPS for thousands of Afghas in April and Cameroonses in the United States. These actions are not part of the current case.
