Topline
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to remove hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans from the U.S., ruling 8-1 to throw out a lower court order, while litigation moves forward, that blocked the federal government from rescinding Venezuelan immigrants' temporary protected status.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears for a Senate hearing on May 8 in Washington, DC.
Justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration after multiple lower courts blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to remove Venezuelan migrants from the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
TPS grants protections to immigrants from designated countries who can’t safely return home because of issues like armed conflicts, natural disasters and other extreme circumstances, meaning the government cannot deport them while their protected status is in place.
Noem terminated the TPS protections for Venezuelans in February after the Biden administration extended them, but her order was blocked in court by a district court judge, and a federal appeals court then agreed that the migrants’ protections should remain in place while litigation moves forward.
The Supreme Court reversed those rulings, meaning Venezuelans will lose their protected status while the case moves forward in federal appeals court and potentially gets appealed to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court—or, later, the Supreme Court—could still ultimately rule against the Trump administration and reinstate Venezuelans’ TPS protections, but the Supreme Court’s decision Monday means the Trump administration can now deport people who were previously protected while the litigation is pending.
Justices did not give any reasoning for their decision to let the Trump administration rescind the protections, and only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she would have rejected the government’s request.
The Supreme Court’s ruling means the Trump administration will be able to erase protections for Venezuelan migrants until at least July, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case. Even if that court rules the Trump administration’s decision to strip Venezuelans of their TPS protections is unlawful, however, the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling revoking the protections will remain in place. The Supreme Court’s order will only be lifted either if justices decide not to take up the case—which means whatever the appeals court rules will stand—or, if they take up the case, after the Supreme Court hears oral arguments and issues a final ruling.
This story is breaking and will be updated.