Ninth Circuit Upholds Block on Venezuelan TPS Termination

A federal appeals court in California ruled late Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its authority in attempting to terminate Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals living legally in the United States, upholding a lower court's block on the administration's move.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted unlawfully by seeking to end the protections without adhering to the procedural requirements set by Congress. The decision centered on two TPS designations for Venezuelans: one from 2021 covering about 257,000 people and an expansion in 2023 that added more than 350,000 beneficiaries. TPS, established under the Immigration Act of 1990, allows individuals from countries facing armed conflict, environmental disasters or other extraordinary conditions to remain in the U.S. for renewable periods of up to 18 months, shielding them from deportation and granting work authorization.

In the majority opinion, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote that the statute does not permit the secretary to vacate an existing TPS designation outright. "The...