Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem ended deportation protections for some Venezuelans, the latest Trump administration effort to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after a series of court losses.
The termination affected about 250,000 people who were awarded TPS through a 2021 declaration otherwise set to expire on Sept. 10.
“Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively,” a DHS spokesperson said in a release.
“Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest.”
DHS can award TPS for countries experiencing natural disasters or civil unrest.
Under former President Biden, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas awarded TPS for Venezuela twice, citing widespread political instability and food insecurity that has wracked the country for years, causing millions to flee.
The Trump administration previously terminated TPS for another 350,000 Venezuelans impacted by a different reauthorization in February.
The announcement comes days after an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found an earlier attempt by Noem to “vacate” TPS for Venezuela was unlawful.
TPS can only be terminated 60 days after notice in the Federal Register, where the administration is required to detail why it thinks the country is safe enough for the resumption of deportations. The notice to accompany the Wednesday announcement was not immediately posted on the site.
In its ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Congress had established the termination process to create “a system of temporary status that was predictable, dependable, and insulated from electoral politics,” a panel for the court wrote.
The ruling also upheld the decision of a lower court judge that previously blocked Noem’s vacatur from taking effect in April, writing that her decision “smacks of racism” after making a series of demeaning comments about Venezuelans.
“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” California-based U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote in his earlier ruling.
