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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to proceed with revoking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, a move that could result in mass deportations and has triggered fierce backlash from immigration advocates and legal experts.
The brief unsigned order allows the Department of Homeland Security to move forward with reversing the Biden administration’s 2023 decision that extended TPS protections for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans facing political and humanitarian crises in their home country. The justices did not provide a full opinion, though Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, attorney for the Venezuelan plaintiffs. He called the court’s decision “truly shocking.”
The ruling follows a January 2024 extension of the TPS designation under the Biden administration, which had been set to last until October 2026. However, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, appointed by President Trump, moved in February to terminate the extension early, arguing that the circumstances in Venezuela no longer warranted protected status.
In response, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a temporary block on Noem’s plan, citing concerns over racial bias and the humanitarian consequences of potential deportations. He warned that Venezuelans could face “possible imminent deportation” without legal status.
However, the Trump administration appealed, and Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that federal courts should not interfere with the discretionary nature of immigration decisions, especially under the TPS framework.
“The court’s order contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives,” Sauer wrote, adding that delays undermine the fast-paced and flexible nature of immigration policy.
The decision is likely to disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, many of whom have been legally living and working in the U.S. for years under the TPS program. The National TPS Alliance, along with multiple individual plaintiffs, had filed suit to halt the Trump administration’s actions, asserting that the administration was evading judicial oversight.
“It should be unremarkable that federal courts say what the law is,” their legal team stated.
While the ruling permits the rollback to proceed, the litigation is ongoing in the lower courts. The Supreme Court’s order suggested that immigrants who had received work authorization through October 2025 may still have legal grounds for further challenges.
The ruling comes just days after the Supreme Court rejected another Trump-era immigration move under the Alien Enemies Act, ruling that detainees must be given a fair chance to contest deportation proceedings — a setback for Trump’s hard-line immigration strategy.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin praised Monday’s decision as a “win for the American people”, saying it restores integrity to the immigration system.
But immigrant advocates warn the decision could lead to widespread job loss, family separation, and forced returns to a country that the State Department still considers unsafe.
