Federal judge postpones DHS’s attempt to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans

A U.S. District judge in San Francisco, California, on Monday granted a motion to postpone the Trump administration’s attempt to end temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelan nationals, which was granted under a program implemented by the Biden administration.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced actions three days after being sworn into her role to strip nearly 350,000 Venezuelan nationals of their protection under the TPS program, which allows them to live and work temporarily in the U.S.

By stripping the Venezuelans of their TPS status, the court said Noem is subjecting them to “possible imminent deportation” back to their country, which the State Department has categorized as a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” country because of the “high risk of wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, [and] poor health infrastructure.”

The action would reverse the Biden administration’s efforts to extend temporary protections of Venezuelan nations that have been in place since 2021.

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U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of the San Francisco Federal Court granted a postponement of Noem’s order on Monday, saying, “The Court finds that the Secretary’s action threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

Chen also said the government has failed to identify “any real countervailing harm” in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries.

“Plaintiffs have also shown they will likely succeed in demonstrating that the actions taken by the Secretary are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus,” Chen wrote. “For these reasons, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ request to postpone the challenged actions pending final adjudication of the merits of this case.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment on the decision.

The National TPS Alliance – an organization representing individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S. – and individuals from Venezuela who have TPS challenged the Trump administration’s decision to terminate TPS for Venezuelans in the U.S., argue that Noem’s action was unlawful and motivated by racial bias.

Venezuelan migrants were allowed to fly directly to the U.S. after applying from abroad under a policy started during the Biden administration that was designed to open legal migration pathways, but President Donald Trump suspended the program when he returned to office in January.

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The Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela program, CHNV, allowed migrants and their immediate family members to fly into the U.S. if they had American sponsors. They could then remain in the country for two years under a temporary immigration status known as parole. The program first applied to Venezuelans before it was expanded to additional countries.

Trump’s efforts to remove legal and illegal migrants from the U.S. since taking office in January as part of his immigration agenda have faced numerous legal obstacles.

The Trump administration is also reportedly dismantling internal watchdogs for DHS, including its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which investigated allegations of abuse and discrimination within immigration enforcement, according to Bloomberg News.

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.