Federal judge rebuffs Trump again in Venezuelan TPS case, blocking deportations

A federal judge in San Francisco rebuffed the Trump administration again in a major immigration case on Friday, saying he is sticking to his decision to stop the government’s revocation of deportation protections this month for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in Florida and other states.

U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen cited several factors for rejecting the government’s request to lift his stay of the revocation order issued by the Department of Homeland Security, concluding that Venezuelan nationals with Temporary Protected Status in the United States could be “irreparably injured” if he did not put a hold on their deportations.

“Any removal likely could not be ‘undone’ should Plaintiffs (Venezuelan migrants) ultimately prevail,” Chen wrote in a five-page order. “In fact, just recently, the government mistakenly deported an individual, who has legal status to be in the United States, to El Salvador but has essentially taken the position that it cannot do anything to address that mistake.”

This week, lawyers for the Trump administration acknowledged in a separate case involving a challenge to the 1798 Alien Enemies Act that immigration authorities mistakenly deported a Maryland man to a mega prison in El Salvador along with members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Despite the admission of an “administrative error,” the lawyers said the government lacks the authority to return him to the United States.

That admission not only raises questions about others who may have been mistakenly ensnared in deportation roundups, but also underscores Judge Chen’s main point about the potential irreparable harm to Venezuelans protected by TPS should he lift his stay.

On Tuesday, the administration lawyers asked Chen to put his stay ruling on hold by Friday, so that the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco can consider the order revoking a TPS extension issued by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February. It is likely that the administration will appeal Chen’s decision to keep his stay in place.

The administration’s goal, though not stated in its motion, would be to have Noem’s revocation order reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative justices, three of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term. If the secretary’s order is ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, the Venezuelans with TPS in the United States would not be allowed to pursue their lawsuit in San Francisco that challenges Noem’s assertion that their protected status “is contrary to the national interest.”

Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that Noem has the exclusive power to revoke the Biden administration’s TPS order for Venezuelan nationals in the United States and that the plaintiffs don’t have rights under their “equal protection” argument to challenge her authority.

In their 14-page motion, the government lawyers said Noem’s “determinations are immigration policies rationally related to legitimate governmental interests and were not motivated by racially discriminatory intent,” despite what Chen found in his initial ruling on Monday. They said the judge’s postponement of her order, which was to take effect next Monday, “imposes irreparable injury” to the executive branch and the public, asserting that Tren de Aragua gang members “were covered” along with other Venezuelan nationals by the Biden administration’s TPS order in 2023.

Chen found that Noem had acted on broad generalizations and stereotypes when she revoked the work permits and deportation protections of about 350,000 Venezuelans benefiting from TPS.

“It is evident that the Secretary made sweeping negative generalizations about Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries,” the judge said in a 78-page order. “Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism.”

The judge also pointed out evidence that suggests discriminatory intent by Noem in her decision-making, with a direct connection to Trump’s actions and statements.

“President Trump made several discriminatory remarks, not only targeting Venezuelan immigrants or TPS holders but also non-white immigrants in general. His statements included derogatory comments about Haitian immigrants, TPS holders, and other non-white immigrants, such as claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were ‘eating the dogs’ and making disparaging remarks about Venezuelans and other immigrants being responsible for increasing crime,” the judge noted in the ruling.

Venezuelans who sued have provided significant evidence that TPS holders and their families would suffer irreparable harm if the revocation was allowed to go forward, the judge said.

“In contrast, the government’s contention that the public interest weighs in its favor is not convincing because the government lacks any evidence of national security harms,” Chen added.

His ruling, stopping the TPS revocation while the lawsuit plays out in his court, was a blow to the Trump administration. It has targeted Venezuelans as part of mass deportation efforts through several policies and argued that allowing people from Venezuela, which is plunged into humanitarian and political crises, into the U.S. goes against American interests.

In the ruling, Chen emphasized the social and economic contributions of Venezuelans, noting their low criminal rates, high education and labor levels, and the hundreds of millions of dollars they inject into the U.S. economy.

The decision was also a relief for the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States who were grappling with the uncertainty of returning to a country where many of them could face political persecution and repression from Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Days before he left office, President Joe Biden had extended TPS for Venezuela for an additional 18 months, valid until October 2026. But weeks into office, Noem revoked the TPS extension for a large group of Venezuelans, effective April 7. The decision would have meant that as of Wednesday, as many as 350,000 Venezuelans, many of them living in South Florida, would have lost the ability to legally work in the U.S., and a few days later would have been vulnerable to detention and deportation.

A group of seven Venezuelans facing deportation, along with an advocacy group named the National TPS Alliance, sued the Trump administration in the San Francisco federal court on Feb. 19, arguing that its decision to end deportation protections for Venezuelans is unlawful, politically motivated, racially discriminatory, and part of a broader pattern of bias against non-European, non-white immigrants.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

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