Trump Axing Venezuelan Relief Likely Illegal, 9th Cir. Says (1)

The Trump administration’s cancellation of temporary deportation protections for 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants was likely unlawful, a federal appellate panel found in the latest ruling over the government’s immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security likely violated its legal authority by terminating Temporary Protected Status early for those immigrants, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday, affirming a lower court order staying the move by DHS.

The decision comes after the US Supreme Court in May granted an emergency request from DHS allowing it to go ahead with removing TPS protections for the Venezuelan Americans while litigation continues moves forward.

“There are now two comprehensive decisions carefully explaining why the Venezuela vacatur is illegal, but neither has any effect because of the two paragraph unreasoned SCOTUS order,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, a UCLA Law professor and counsel for plaintiffs.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants’ legal status in the US remains in limbo as multiple federal courts weigh the legality of Trump administration efforts to revoke temporary humanitarian status such as TPS and parole for groups from a swath of countries.

The TPS program, which was enacted in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990, allows immigrants from designated countries to stay in the US with legal work authorization for up to 18 months when circumstances such as armed conflict or political instability make it unsafe to return home. DHS is required to make an objective review of conditions on the ground in a given country at least 60 days before its designation expires before deciding to renew or end protections.

The National TPS Alliance sued DHS in February, arguing Secretary Kristi Noem’s cancellation of a TPS extension granted by the Biden administration and subsequent termination of protections for those covered by a 2023 designation violated the Administrative Procedure Act because she did not have authority to annul previously issued protections. The plaintiffs also argued the termination decision was also arbitrary and capricious because it didn’t go through the proper review process and that it was motivated by unconstitutional racial animus.

The Ninth Circuit found plaintiffs were likely to succeed with claims that Noem lacked authority to vacate prior extensions and therefore didn’t need to consider additional claims. Congress has provided an explicit procedure for terminating a TPS designation that doesn’t allow for removing a designation “midstream,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the panel.

“Thus, if the Secretary wished to end TPS status for Venezuelans, she is statutorily required to follow the procedures for termination that Congress enacted,” wrote Wardlaw, a Bill Clinton appointee.

The Ninth Circuit panel that heard the case last month also included Joe Biden appointees Salvador Mendoza Jr. and Anthony Johnstone.

The panel found that a nationwide postponement of the termination was the only remedy that provided complete relief to plaintiffs, who faced potential deportation, family separation, and loss of jobs as a result.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that the TPS program had been exploited as a “de facto amnesty program.” Secretary Noem “will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans,” the spokesperson said.

UCLA Law School’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, ACLU Foundation of Northern California, ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network represent the National TPS Alliance. The Justice Department represents DHS.

The case is Nat’l TPS All. v. Noem, 9th Cir., No. 25-2120, order issued 8/29/25.