Latest news with #TPS
Express Tribune
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Judge blocks Trump move to invalidate work permits of 5,000 Venezuelans
Venezuelan migrants arrive after being deported from the United States, at Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia, Venezuela April 23, 2025. Photo:REUTERS Listen to article A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from invalidating work permits and other documents granting lawful status to about 5,000 Venezuelans, a subset of the nearly 350,000 whose temporary legal protections the US Supreme Court last week allowed to be terminated. US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco in a Friday night ruling, concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely exceeded her authority when she in February invalidated those documents while more broadly ending the temporary protected status granted to the Venezuelans. The US Supreme Court on May 19 lifted an earlier order Chen issued that prevented the administration as part of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda from terminating deportation protection conferred to Venezuelans under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program. Judge Edward Chen is preserving TPS for a limited number of Venezuelans who received documentation on or before February 5th, when Sec. Noem formally terminated 2023 Venezuela TPS. — Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García (@GarciaReports) May 31, 2025 But the high court stated specifically it was not preventing any Venezuelans from still challenging Noem's related decision to invalidate documents they were issued pursuant to that program that allowed them to work and live in the United States. Such documents were issued after the US Department of Homeland Security during former Democratic President Joe Biden's final days in office extended the TPS program for the Venezuelans by 18 months to October 2026, an action Noem sought to reverse. TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. Lawyers for several Venezuelans and the advocacy group National TPS Alliance asked Chen to recognize the documents' continuing validity, saying without them migrants could lose their jobs or be deported. Chen in siding with them said nothing in the statute authorizing the TPS program allowed Noem to invalidate the documents. Chen, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, noted the administration estimated only about 5,000 of the 350,000 Venezuelans held such documents. "This smaller number cuts against any contention that the continued presence of these TPS holders who were granted TPS-related documents by the Secretary would be a toll on the national or local economies or a threat to national security," Chen wrote. Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement said the "ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the president's constitutionally vested powers." Chen ruled hours after the US Supreme Court in a different case on Friday allowed Trump's administration to end the temporary immigration "parole" granted to 532,000 Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants under a different Biden-era program.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Federal judge halts Trump admin from ending protected status for some Venezuelans
A California judge on Friday halted the Trump administration from revoking temporary protective status (TPS) for 5,000 Venezuelans. U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen, an Obama appointee, said Friday the White House would have to uphold the TPS extension granted by former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in January. His successor, Kristi Noem, attempted to erode the protective status for Venezuelans in February by terminating a Biden-era order extending their ability to obtain updated paperwork, including work permits and other documents. 'According to Plaintiffs, Secretary Noem exceeded her statutory authority when sheeffectively canceled, on February 3, 2025, TPS-related documentation that had already beenissued based on the extension to October 2, 2026. Plaintiffs' position is meritorious. Nothing inthe TPS statute allows the Secretary to take such action,' Chen wrote in the order. Chen later wrote, 'The extension had real world consequences: it was effective, even if only for a brief period of time.' The Supreme Court previously issued an emergency order allowing the Trump administration to strip legal protections for migrants. However, their ruling does not block legal challenges contesting Noem's decision. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said her decision was racially discriminatory. The Homeland Security Secretary also ended deportation protections for Haitians earlier this year. In recent months, President Trump and his team have been named in a number of court battles initiated by plaintiffs who allege the administration has undertaken wrongful deportations and denied due process to individuals who have been removed. Throughout the campaign trail, Trump promised to carry out the largest deportation in the country's history, but the rate of removals still remains lower than the Biden administration's numbers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What is temporary protected status and who is affected by Trump's crackdown?
Millions of people live legally in the United States under various forms of temporary legal protection. Many have been targeted in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The latest move has been against people who have what is known as 'temporary protected status' (TPS), which grants people the right to stay in the US legally due to extraordinary circumstances in their home country such as war or environmental catastrophe. The Trump administration has in recent weeks announced its plan to end TPS for Haitians, Venezuelans, Afghans and Cameroonians. The move may force more than 9,000 Afghan refugees to move back to the country now ruled by the Taliban. The administration also is ending the designation for roughly half a million Haitians in August. Related: US supreme court allows Trump to revoke protected status for Venezuelans Here's what to know about TPS and some other temporary protections for immigrants: Temporary protected status allows people already living in the United States to stay and work legally for up to 18 months if their homelands are unsafe because of civil unrest or natural disasters. The Biden administration dramatically expanded the designation. It covers people from more than a dozen countries, though the largest numbers come from Venezuela and Haiti. The status does not put immigrants on a long-term path to citizenship and can be repeatedly renewed. Critics say renewal has become in effect automatic for many immigrants, no matter what is happening in their home countries. According to the American Immigration Council, ending TPS designations would lead to a significant economic loss for the US. The non-profit found that TPS households in the country earned more than $10bn in total income in 2021, and paid nearly $1.3bn in federal taxes. On Monday, the supreme court allowed the administration to end protections that had allowed some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants to remain in the United States. Many Venezuelans were first granted TPS in 2021 by the Biden administration, allowing those who were already in the US to apply for protection from deportation and gain work authorization. Then, in 2023, the Biden administration issued an additional TPS designation for Venezuelans, and in January – just before Trump took office – extended those protections through October 2026. The Trump administration officials had ordered TPS to expire for those Venezuelans in April. The supreme court's decision lifted a federal judge's ruling that had paused the administration's plans, meaning TPS holders are now at risk of losing their protections and could face deportation. More than 500,000 people from what are sometimes called the CHNV countries – Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela – live in the US under the legal tool known as humanitarian parole, which allows people to enter the US temporarily, on the basis that they have an urgent humanitarian need like a medical emergency. This category, however, is also under threat by the Trump administration. In late March, the Trump administration announced plans to terminate humanitarian parole for approximately 530,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians. In April, a federal judge issued a temporary order barring the elimination of the humanitarian parole program. But last week, the administration took the issue to the supreme court, asking it to allow it to end parole for immigrants from those four countries. The emergency appeal said a lower-court order had wrongly encroached on the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. US administrations – both Republican and Democratic – have used parole for decades for people unable to use regular immigration channels, whether because of time pressure or bad relations between their country and the US. The case now returns to the lower courts. For the California-based federal court, the next hearing is on 29 May. For the Massachusetts case, no hearings are scheduled and attorneys are working on a briefing for the motion to dismiss filed by the government, according to WGBH, a member station of National Public Radio in Massachusetts. The appeals court hearing will be the week of 11 July.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
New order by California judge protects some Venezuelan TPS holders from deportation
A federal judge has granted protection from deportation and work permits to as many as 5,000 Venezuelans who have Temporary Protected Status. U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen in San Francisco on Friday granted an emergency motion filed by Venezuelan plaintiffs following last week's Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration can deport some Venezuelans on TPS while a challenge wends its way through the courts. Chen's order involves two key dates: Jan. 17, 2025, when Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security at the time, extended TPS for Venezuelans until next year, and Feb. 5, when the new DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, announced she was revoking the extension. In an 11-page ruling, Chen ordered the government to uphold the rights of TPS holders who received government documentation — such as work permits and/or TPS renewals — under Mayorkas's extension between those two dates. 'If DHS granted that extension, it must honor it and comply with the court's order,' said Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who is among the lawyers representing the Venezuelans in the case. During Thursday's hearing, the government estimated that about 5,000 Venezuelans re-registered for TPS or work permits, a figure Chen referred to in his ruling. 'What we do know is that two of the named plaintiffs in our case do benefit from the order,' MacLean said. 'We also have named plaintiffs who fall outside the scope of Judge Chen's ruling—for example, those who received an automatic extension but only after February 5th. Additionally, we know there are people who made the effort to re-register but didn't receive any official notice in time to benefit from it.' The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Noem revoked TPS protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans effective April 7 — stripping their right to work and exposing them to potential detention and deportation. Many affected individuals live in South Florida. After the Supreme Court ruling, Homeland Security updated its TPS guidance but has yet to clarify how it will implement the decision. On March 31, Chen blocked the Trump administration's attempt to revoke deportation protections for Venezuelans just days before their legal status was set to expire. Chen ruled that Venezuelan nationals with TPS could suffer 'irreparable injury' without a stay on their deportations. In April, a federal appeals court upheld Chen's stay, rejecting the government's request to lift it. However, on May 19 the Supreme Court issued a ruling favoring the Trump administration by allowing the termination of TPS to proceed while the case is litigated. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit, which was filed by seven Venezuelans and the National TPS Alliance in federal court in San Francisco. The high court clarified that its order does not prevent ongoing challenges to Noem's decision to cancel work permits and other official documents set to expire on Oct. 2, 2026.
The Hill
17 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Federal judge halts Trump admin from ending protected status for some Venezuelans
A California judge on Friday halted the Trump administration from revoking temporary protective status (TPS) for 5,000 Venezuelans. U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen, an Obama appointee, said Friday the White House would have to uphold the TPS extension granted by former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in January. His successor, Kristi Noem, attempted to erode the protective status for Venezuelans in February by terminating a Biden-era order extending their ability to obtain updated paperwork, including work permits and other documents. 'According to Plaintiffs, Secretary Noem exceeded her statutory authority when sheeffectively canceled, on February 3, 2025, TPS-related documentation that had already beenissued based on the extension to October 2, 2026. Plaintiffs' position is meritorious. Nothing inthe TPS statute allows the Secretary to take such action,' Chen wrote in the order. Chen later wrote, 'The extension had real world consequences: it was effective, even if only for a brief period of time.' The Supreme Court previously issued an emergency order allowing the Trump administration to strip legal protections for migrants. However, their ruling does not block legal challenges contesting Noem's decision. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said her decision was racially discriminatory. The Homeland Security Secretary also ended deportation protections for Haitians earlier this year. In recent months, President Trump and his team have been named in a number of court battles initiated by plaintiffs who allege the administration has undertaken wrongful deportations and denied due process to individuals who have been removed. Throughout the campaign trail, Trump promised to carry out the largest deportation in the country's history, but the rate of removals still remains lower than the Biden administration's numbers.
