SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to circumvent a previous order protecting 350,000 Venezuelan migrants under temporary protected status from being deported on April 7.
Granting the government a stay to his previous ruling ordering the Trump administration postpone its attempt to strip residency status from the Venezuelan plaintiffs would harm them and moot his own order, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said in his denial of the government’s motion to stay.
“If the court were to order a stay of the postponement order pending appeal, that would mean hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan TPS holders would lose legal status in just a few days and thus be subject to removal — removal would effectively moot out the postponement order and the appeal thereof,” Chen wrote.
The Barack Obama appointee added: “Any removal likely could not be ‘undone’ should plaintiffs ultimately prevail. In fact, just recently, the government mistakenly deported an individual, who has legal status to be in the United States, to El Salvador but has essentially taken the position that it cannot do anything to address that mistake.”
Chen wrote that the government, in seeking the stay, implied that it would deport Venezuelan TPS holders immediately.
Last week, Chen blocked U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from stripping temporary protected status from nearly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, citing the potential for harm and danger should they be removed. Chen wrote in his order then that Noem’s actions were likely unlawful, arbitrary and capricious and motivated by racial animus.
Temporary protected status is a temporary immigration benefit granted by the U.S. government to nationals of designated countries facing unsafe conditions. It allows them to remain in the U.S., work and receive temporary protection from deportation. Noem sought to revoke the protections from the Venezuelans, with hundreds of thousands set to be deported in April and hundreds of thousands more at risk of deportation in September.
The new administration’s actions would revoke an 18-month extension of protection for Venezuelans granted before former President Joe Biden left office. The revocation would also eliminate such status for Venezuelans who registered for it in 2023. With Chen’s postponement order in place, the Venezuelans will keep temporary protected status until October 2026.
Chen wrote in his order denying the government’s stay request that in addition to the risk of removal, the Venezuelan temporary protected status holders would lose their work authorization.
“This would jeopardize beneficiaries’ ability to sustain themselves and/or their families. It will also cause dislocation and harm to the economy as described in the court’s postponement order,” Chen wrote.
In his order last week, Chen cited economic factors when he sided with the Venezuelan plaintiffs. He noted that Venezuelan temporary protected status holders contributed greatly to the economy, paid taxes and were more educated and less likely to commit crimes than the general population.
Individual Venezuelan plaintiffs and the National TPS Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group, originally sued over Noem’s actions in February. In their complaint, they claim Noem’s actions were motivated by racial animus and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
Chen, in a March hearing, was troubled by remarks Noem made in the past about Venezuelans that characterized them as “dirtbags” and gang members.
“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotypes to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote in his order blocking Noem’s actions last week.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment on the ruling before press time. The federal government also did not respond before press time.