Trump pushes supreme court to scrap deportation protections for 300,000 venezuelans

The move marks the latest flashpoint in the legal battles surrounding Donald Trump’s second term and his use of emergency appeals.

At the centre of the case is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision earlier this year to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan migrants, a humanitarian programme first introduced by the Biden administration in 2021 and later extended. The White House argues that maintaining TPS is “contrary to the national interest”.

In May, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to proceed with rescinding the protections, despite objections from liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. But a federal judge in California later issued an order temporarily restoring TPS, a ruling upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In its latest emergency petition, the government accused Judge Edward Chen and the appeals court of taking an “indefensible” position.

Legal experts say the dispute underscores broader questions about how much weight lower courts should give to the Supreme Court’s often terse emergency rulings. “They tell us nothing”, said appellate judge James Wynn earlier this month, reflecting the frustration of jurists faced with scant guidance from the nation’s highest court.

At stake is not only the fate of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have built their lives in the United States, but also the balance of power between the executive branch and the judiciary in shaping immigration policy. Lawyers for the migrants argue that Noem’s decision violated federal administrative procedures and was driven by political and racial bias.

The outcome could determine whether Venezuelan migrants remain shielded from deportation or face removal as Trump presses ahead with one of the most hard-line immigration agendas in modern US history.