Venezuelan migrants say Kristi Noem fabricated reasons for revoking protected status

(CN) — A federal judge on Friday took up the question whether U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem bent the rules when she stripped more than a million Venezuelan and Haitian nationals living in the U.S. of their temporary protected status.

Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen didn’t issue a decision at a hearing in San Francisco on cross-motions for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the National TPS Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group that claims Noem’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.

The National TPS Alliance says that in her haste to undo the protections granted by the Biden administration, Noem sidestepped the review requirement under the TPS statute and fabricated reasons afterward to justify her decision.

Jessica Bansal, an attorney representing the alliance, drew the judge’s attention to a Jan. 25 email, the day Noem’s nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, by a senior administration official that said the secretary would be vacating the Jan. 10 extension of the temporary protected status of Venezuelans and asking U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide him with a summary of operational challenges related to the TPS designations.

“So the decision to vacate has been made, and they are looking for reasons,” Bansal argued.

“It’s not a blank slate for her to decide whatever she wants with respect to extensions,” the lawyer added. “This is a statute that is designed to provide some measure of insulation against political changes to humanitarian refugees in this country.”

A change in temporary protected status of immigrants from a specific country requires that the Homeland Security secretary evaluates the conditions in that country in consultation with other government agencies, Bansal said.

William Weiland, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department, said in response that the record was clear that the secretary considered the conditions in Venezuela as part of her decisions.

“What they are asking you to do is weigh, or re-weigh, how those country conditions should come out,” Weiland told the judge.

Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, in March had temporarily postponed Noem’s unprecedented action of vacating the existing temporary protection status of Venezuelans — something which had never been done in the 35-year history of the TPS program — just three days after she took office, citing the racial animus that appeared to motivate her decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, in a one-page decision that offered no explanation, stayed the judge’s ruling in May, opening the doors for the Trump administration to start deporting as many as 350,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protected status lapsed in April.

Numerous Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries have since lost their jobs, were living in their cars, and had been detained and deported, Bansal said at Friday’s hearing.

Temporary protected status is a designation applied to nationals of certain countries where violence or economic duress makes deportation difficult or unsafe. About 600,000 Venezuelans living and working in the U.S. were given TPS under the Biden administration in 2021 and 2023, making them the largest group of such status holders in the nation.

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued an 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans whose 18-month status was running out in April, but Noem revoked the extension as soon as she took office. During a Fox News interview, Noem called Venezuelan immigrants “dirtbags” and insinuated they were members of criminal gangs.

In February, Noem also revoked TPS for Haitian immigrants. There are about 500,000 Haitian status holders, who had been given a Biden-era extension that would have stretched protected status to February 2026. Noem’s decision cut that extension from 18 months to 12 months.

Under the secretary’s orders, a further 250,000 Venezuelans will lose their temporary protected status next month.

At a hearing last month before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing Chen’s March postponement order, the Justice Department argued that any review of the executive’s foreign policy determinations by domestic courts would be inappropriate under the separation of powers doctrine.

It also argued that Noem was completely justified in reversing a Biden-era decision to extend temporary status protections for Venezuelans, saying that agencies are allowed to change their minds on specific issues.

In a separate lawsuit, the National TPS alliance is challenging the Trump administration revocation of temporary protected status for immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.

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