Trump administration asks Supreme Court to end protected status for 600,000 Venezuelans

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to end deportation protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans, the administration’s latest plea for the justices to intervene in President Trump’s sweeping immigration agenda. 

The emergency application seeks to lift a San Francisco-based federal district judge’s ruling that halted the administration’s plans as a legal challenge proceeds, with that decision finding the abrupt policy change “smacks of racism.” 

“Its order upsets the judgments of the political branches, prohibiting the Executive Branch from enforcing a time-sensitive immigration policy and indefinitely extending an immigration status that Congress intended to be ‘temporary,’” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application. 

Known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the program protects from deportation those already in the country who cannot return to their home due to unrest or dangerous conditions. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “vacated” a renewal of TPS for Venezuelans shortly after taking office in January, saying she was not going to let the prior administration “tie our hands.” Noem announced the move in an interview in which she repeatedly referred to migrants as “dirtbags.” 

The National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelans protected by the program are suing over the administration’s move, claiming it was motivated in part by racial animus and did not follow the proper procedure. 

TPS may only be designated — and revoked — after a review of conditions on the ground of the country in question. When former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designated Venezuela for TPS, he described a “severe humanitarian emergency due to a political and economic crisis, as well as human rights violations and abuses and high levels of crime and violence, that impacts access to food, medicine, health care, water, electricity, and fuel, and has led to high levels of poverty.” 

In the application, the Trump administration argued that the suit was interfering with its foreign policy objectives. 

“Delay of the Secretary’s decisions threatens to undermine the United States’ foreign policy just as the government is engaged in complex and ongoing negotiations with Venezuela,” wrote Sauer. 

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, an appointee of former President Obama, agreed to halt the administration’s plans on March 31. The emergency appeal at the Supreme Court comes after a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift Chen’s order.

Chen determined the government did not follow proper procedure for stripping TPS and wrote that the administration was “motivated at least in part by animus.” 

“As discussed in other parts of this order, the Secretary’s rationale is entirely lacking in evidentiary support. For example, there is no evidence that Venezuelan TPS holders are members of the [Tren de Aragua]  gang, have connections to the gang, and/or commit crimes,” Chen wrote, noting that “Venezuelan TPS holders have lower rates of criminality than the general population and have higher education rates than the broader U.S. population."  

“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes.” 

Sauer argued the changes to TPS are “quintessentially unreviewable decisions” outside the reach of the federal courts, insisting the Supreme Court’s intervention is needed to rein in the lower judge. 

“That is a classic case of judicial arrogation of core Executive Branch prerogatives and alone warrants correction,” he wrote. 

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, ordered the plaintiffs to respond in writing by next Thursday. Kagan handles emergency appeals arising from the 9th Circuit by default, and she could act on the matter alone or refer it to the full court for a vote. 

Thursday’s filing marks the 12th Supreme Court emergency application filed by the Justice Department since Trump took office. 

The justices have resolved several of those cases already but are still mulling whether to allow Trump to partially enforce his birthright citizenship order, fire two independent agency leaders and move forward with his transgender troops ban.