Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end Venezuelans' protected status

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with terminating Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans while it appeals a Northern District of California ruling that found the move unlawful.

The court granted the administration's request to stay a Sept. 5 judgment that blocked now-former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from rescinding an extension of TPS and terminating the protections for Venezuelan nationals. Noem v. National TPS Alliance, 25A326 (U.S. Supreme Court, filed Oct. 3, 2025).

The unsigned order said the case had changed procedurally since the court intervened in May but concluded that the underlying considerations remained largely the same.

"Although the posture of the case has changed, the parties' legal arguments and relative harms generally have not," the court said. "The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here."

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said they would have denied the administration's application. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a five-page dissent.

The dispute stems from Noem's decision early this year to vacate a Biden administration extension that would have maintained TPS for certain Venezuelans through October 2026 and instead terminate protections for approximately 300,000 Venezuelans in April.

U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco initially postponed the termination while the case proceeded. The Supreme Court stayed that order in May, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed Chen's preliminary ruling.

Chen entered final judgment for the plaintiffs Sept. 5, finding Noem's actions unlawful and setting them aside. The administration again sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.

Friday's order stays the portions of Chen's judgment involving Venezuela while the government pursues its appeal before the 9th Circuit and, potentially, a petition for Supreme Court review. The government did not seek a stay of Chen's separate ruling concerning TPS protections for Haitians.

Jackson sharply criticized the majority for intervening again, noting that lower courts had repeatedly concluded that the administration's actions were unlawful or likely unlawful.

"I view today's decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket," Jackson wrote.

Ahilan T. Arulanantham, Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, was the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. He could not be reached immediately for comment. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security also could not be reached.