Supreme Court Allows Trump to End TPS Venezuela Protections for Thousands of Immigrants
As part of the Trump administration’s strict immigration agenda, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday approved a request to roll back a Biden-era policy that had granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States.
The court’s decision gives the green light to revoke legal protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who were shielded from deportation under the TPS Venezuela program—a humanitarian measure designed to offer temporary relief to foreign nationals from countries facing extreme conditions like war, natural disasters, or political unrest.
The emergency appeal, filed by the Trump administration, reverses a decision made in the final months of President Biden’s term. That policy had extended TPS eligibility for Venezuelans due to the ongoing political and economic crisis in their home country.
In a brief order, the justices allowed the revocation to proceed, with only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting. Legal challenges to the move will now continue in lower courts.
“This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney representing a group of Venezuelan immigrants. He described the Supreme Court’s quick decision as “truly shocking” for not giving the case fuller consideration.
TPS Venezuela was first granted in March 2021 due to Venezuela’s widespread instability. The designation allowed recipients to legally live and work in the United States for renewable 18-month periods. In October 2023, the protections were extended again, just months before former President Trump’s return to office.
However, in February 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to undo those extensions, a decision that would see the protections end this year rather than in 2026. A federal judge in California, Edward Chen, blocked the rollback, expressing concerns that the reversal may have been influenced by racial or political bias.
Judge Chen also warned that Noem’s move could leave thousands facing “possible imminent deportation.”
In defense of the rollback, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that courts have no authority to second-guess decisions made by the executive branch in areas involving immigration policy. “The court’s order contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced, and discretionary,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan immigrants and advocates with the National TPS Alliance filed legal challenges, claiming the Trump administration’s actions were an attempt to bypass judicial scrutiny. They stressed that if the rollback proceeds, it would cause thousands to lose their jobs and face deportation to unsafe conditions in Venezuela—a place many fled in search of safety.
“It should be unremarkable that federal courts say what the law is,” their attorneys wrote, emphasizing that denying legal oversight over such sweeping policy changes undermines constitutional checks and balances.
The Supreme Court’s ruling comes just days after it dealt another blow to Trump’s immigration policy in a separate case. That decision rejected the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan detainees without due process, affirming that immigrants must be given a fair opportunity to challenge deportation.
As the legal battle over TPS Venezuela continues, immigrant advocates warn that the latest ruling could have life-altering consequences for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have made the United States their home.
