Judge reaffirms removing protections from Venezuelans was illegal

(CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday declared once again that it was illegal for the Trump administration to abruptly remove protected status from Venezuelan immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen did, however, make a concession to the federal government, staying his own order for two weeks while the Ninth Circuit weighs in on the matter. The appeals court could decide to stay the matter even longer if it chooses to.

The Immigration Act of 1990 created temporary protected status for immigrants whose countries are unsafe to return to because of war or environmental disaster. The roughly half a million Haitians living in the U.S. were granted TPS during the Obama administration, while about 600,000 Venezuelans were given temporary protection under President Joe Biden.

Shortly after taking office, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked TPS for both Haitians and Venezuelans.

The National TPS Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group, sued Noem in February, calling the decision “arbitrary and capricious," saying the administration was “motivated at least in part by racial animus." To support the last claim, the plaintiffs noted that Noem had referred to Venezuelan TPS holders as “dirtbags.”

The issue has been batted back and forth between the courts all year. In March, Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, postponed the federal government’s action. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed Chen’s ruling without explanation. In August, Chen issued another temporary stay, which the Ninth Circuit affirmed. In September, Chen granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, writing, “The secretary’s action in revoking TPS was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law.”

Less than a week later, Chen ordered the federal government to comply with his ruling, ordering it to reopen TPS registration for Venezuelans.

“My view is that the order was effective immediately, and if there was any doubt, I am reaffirming that," he said at a hearing.

In October, the Supreme Court partially stayed Chen’s preliminary order, again without explanation. In a short dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden appointee, called the stay “yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket.”

The government has appealed Chen’s summary judgment ruling, a matter which is still pending before the Ninth Circuit.

Last month, the TPS Alliance filed a motion for declaratory relief, a maneuver that, by their own admission, would have little effect on this case, but might add weight to other actions.

“To be clear, if this Court grants this motion, Plaintiffs would most likely rely on the Court’s declaratory relief order to challenge the detention and deportation of Plaintiffs and other NTPSA members in other litigation, arguing that this Court’s order has decided the threshold legal question of whether Defendants’ TPS termination decisions were lawful,” the plaintiffs wrote in their motion.

On Wednesday, Chen granted that motion but agreed to stay the decision for two weeks — “only so that a prompt appeal may be taken to the Ninth Circuit (which is already scheduled to have oral argument in January 2026 on the government’s appeal of the partial final judgment issued by this court) and to give the Ninth Circuit the opportunity to consider any stay.”

The Trump administration had argued that the Supreme Court’s stay meant that Chen shouldn’t issue the declaratory relief, but the judge rejected that argument.

“The basis for the Supreme Court stay has never been articulated,” Chen wrote. “It could have stayed the final judgment for any number of reasons which may not bar declaratory judgment herein.”

Neither set of lawyers responded to emails requesting a comment on the ruling.

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