A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the temporary protected status of roughly 5,000 Venezuelans who are in the U.S., despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s February decision to terminate a Biden-era extension of the program.
U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen in San Francisco ruled Friday that thousands of Venezuelans who received paperwork extending their protected status during a brief period earlier this year could keep it. That period began when then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended protected status for Venezuelans in January and ended when Noem terminated it in February.
Chen wrote that if their paperwork has their protected status ending in October 2026, those Venezuelans should not be eligible for deportation while the case is ongoing.
The National TPS Alliance and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on Friday’s order.
It’s the latest decision in a legal saga that could affect around 350,000 Venezuelans who in 2023 were granted the right to temporarily live and work in the U.S.
The National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Department of Homeland Security after Noem and the Trump administration stripped Venezuelans of their protected status shortly after the new president was inaugurated.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs in the case alleged that Noem’s decision was racially discriminatory and violated legal procedures.
They also cited Mayorkas’ decision in the waning days of the Biden administration to extend temporary protected status for Venezuelans through October 2026.
After a federal judge overseeing the case blocked President Donald Trump and his administration from terminating protected status for Venezuelans while the court case played out, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene. And earlier this month, in a two-paragraph order, the United States’ highest court allowed the Trump administration to revoke TPS for Venezuelans despite the ongoing case.
The Trump administration’s move to terminate legal status for Venezuelans under TPS comes amid a broader push for mass deportations. Since the start of the second Trump administration in January, the government has detained and deported tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants.
And other deportation attempts have also drawn legal challenges, like the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man whom the administration admitted was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
