Ending protections for Venezuelans in U.S. illegal, court rules

A federal appeals court ruled this week that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.

- BY SUDHIN THANAWALA

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.

The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.

An email to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.

The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.

A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds.

The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end Tuesday.

Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in this week’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation.

All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.