A federal appeals court on Aug. 29 blocked the Trump administration’s move to rescind the temporary protected status (TPS) that prevents 600,000 Venezuelans from being deported from the United States.
TPS is a designation that allows individuals from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary events to remain in the United States.
The new ruling affirmed U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s order from March that held that the plaintiffs challenging the change in status would probably succeed at trial.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s actions in rescinding the status “appear predicated on negative stereotypes casting class-wide aspersions on their character (insinuating they were released from Venezuelan prisons and mental health facilities and imposed huge financial burdens on local communities),” Chen said in his ruling at the time.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the new ruling in National TPS Alliance v. Noem.
The panel determined that the plaintiffs challenging the policy would probably succeed with their claim that Noem lacked legal authority to withdraw the protective status for the Venezuelans concerned.
Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw said in the panel’s ruling that the plaintiffs will likely succeed in their claim that invalidating “a prior extension of TPS is not permitted by the governing statutory framework.”
When Congress created the TPS law, it designed it to make it “predictable, dependable, and insulated from electoral politics,” the judge said.
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