Federal Judge Defends Nationwide Injunctions in Migrants Case

A Massachusetts federal judge Tuesday defended the authority of district courts to issue nationwide injunctions of federal government actions, during a hearing about the Trump administration’s decision to revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants.

“The bottom line is at this moment there is authority for the district courts to issue such orders and there will be until Congress or the Supreme Court says otherwise,” Judge Richard Stearns held in defending a Northern District of California judge’s decision Monday to block the administration from vacating a previously-authorized TPS extension for Venezuelan immigrants.

Stearns, who was nominated by former president Bill Clinton, didn’t say whether he agreed with Judge Edward Chen’s decision. But the relief requested by the plaintiffs in the case before him is moot regardless, he said, despite both sides asking him for a ruling regardless of the California ruling.

“Agree to disagree,” Stearns said. “This creates a level of complication that this case doesn’t need. It needs a clear decision from the Ninth Circuit, which is a higher authority than I am,” Stearns said.

The judge’s reference to Congress comes as Republicans seek to rein in the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The House will vote on legislation this week that would prevent federal trial judges from handing down rulings that apply nationally and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a similar measure Monday.

House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called on appropriators in a letter Monday to add language in legislation funding the federal judiciary limiting nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges.

Future Proceedings

Chen said within a week the government should notify the court whether it will appeal the order in that case, and the plaintiffs should say whether they’ll file a motion to postpone termination of TPS protections for Haitians.

The administration seeks to end the TPS designations for Haitian and Venezuelan nationals living in the US to August 2025 and April 2025, respectively, cutting their protections short from the February 2026 and October 2026 extensions previously in place.

Having Stearns weigh in on the issue could protect immigrants from “very serious harms” that could happen in the event of “any kind of narrowing or reversal” of Chen’s decision, said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights. He said his clients could face violence and political instability if they were deported.

Sarah Vuong, a Justice Department attorney, said, “Having multiple judges looking at this issue, providing their analysis, and weighing in provides a broader grounds for these issues to be reviewed at the appellate level.”

The lawsuit is one of several challenges to the Trump administration’s policies filed within the jurisdiction of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is dominated by Democratic-appointed judges.

The case is Haitian Americans United Inc. v. Trump, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10498, hearing 4/1/25.