US Supreme Court Authorizes Trump to Terminate TPS for Venezuelan Migrants

The nation's top court on the last weekday permitted the Trump administration to strip TPS benefits from over 300k people from Venezuela.

Emergency Order Issued

The justices delivered an temporary measure, which will stay active for the duration of the legal proceedings proceed, freezing a decision by a district judge that had prevented the administration from terminating protected immigration status for the migrants from Venezuela.

The three liberal justices voiced disagreement.

Wider Protection Revocations

The Trump government has moved to withdraw multiple safeguards that permit migrants to remain in the US and hold jobs lawfully, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were awarded TPS in the previous government.

TPS is granted in 18-month increments.

Prior Supreme Court Ruling

In the spring, the supreme court set aside a preliminary order that affected an additional 350k Venezuelans whose protections lapsed earlier this year.

The high court offered no clarification at the time, which is common in interim applications.

“The same result that we reached in May is fitting here,” the court wrote in an anonymous decision.

Consequences for Venezuelans

Some protected individuals have been dismissed from work and homes while others have been arrested and removed after the justices intervened the initial instance, legal counsel submitted to the court.

Judicial Dissent

“I regard today’s decision as an additional grave misuse of our urgent case list,” Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote. “Because, with all due respect, I cannot accept our frequent, unwarranted and harmful intervention with ongoing litigation while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.”

Origins of the Program

Congress introduced TPS in 1990 to stop expulsions to states undergoing natural disasters, unrest or additional hazardous situations.

The status can be awarded by the top immigration official.

District Judge's Ruling

The district judge ruled that the federal department acted “with unprecedented haste and in an unprecedented manner … for the preordained purpose of expediting termination of Venezuela’s TPS designation.”

In earlier dismissing the Trump team's emergency appeal, another judge represented a unanimous three-judge appellate panel that the district judge had concluded that DHS made its “conclusions initially and sought legal grounds for those decisions second”.

Courtroom Debate

The solicitor general had asserted in the recent court documents that the court's spring ruling should similarly affect the ongoing proceedings.

“This case is well-known to the court and involves the increasingly familiar and untenable situation of trial courts disregarding this court’s orders on the urgent case list,” the attorney declared.

The result, he said, is that the “new order, identical to the old one, stopped the revocation and ending of TPS concerning in excess of 300,000 foreign nationals based on baseless claims”.