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President Donald Trump has picked up a big win at the U.S. Supreme Court on a key issue driving his presidency. The court annulled a lower court injunction that was obstructing the president from revoking the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants presently living in the United States.
The ruling was 8–1 in support of the president’s position, with the sole dissent originating from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by former President Joe Biden.
The ruling facilitates the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke Biden-era Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 300,000 Venezuelan migrants residing in the U.S.. It permits the administration to proceed with the immediate deportation of these migrants, as asserted by the administration’s legal representatives.
During his address to the Supreme Court earlier this year, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer asserted that the lower court had exceeded its jurisdiction.
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He stated that “the district court’s reasoning is untenable,” asserting that the program “involves particularly discretionary, sensitive, and foreign-policy-laden judgments of the Executive Branch concerning immigration policy.”
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem rescinded Temporary Protected Status in a February memo, with an effective date in April.
On October 3, 2023, Venezuela was again recognized for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) owing to exceptional and temporary circumstances that hinder the safe repatriation of Venezuelan nationals.
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Following an assessment of the prevailing situation in the country and consultations with relevant U.S. government agencies, the Secretary of Homeland Security has concluded that Venezuela no longer satisfies the criteria for the 2023 designation.
It has been concluded that allowing the designated Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is against the national interest.
The memo stated, “Consequently, the 2023 TPS designation for Venezuela is being revoked.”
“On March 9, 2021, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas designated Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) due to his assessment of ‘extraordinary and temporary conditions’ in Venezuela that hindered the safe return of its nationals, asserting that allowing these individuals to remain temporarily in the United States aligns with U.S. national interests,” it stated.
The memo stated, “On September 8, 2022, former Secretary Mayorkas prolonged the Venezuela 2021 TPS designation for 18 months.”
On October 3, 2023, Secretary Mayorkas prolonged the Venezuela 2021 TPS designation for an additional 18 months, expiring on September 10, 2025.
He also designated Venezuela for 18 months, referring to this decision as a ‘redesignation’ (Venezuela 2023 designation), which expires on April 2, 2025, thereby establishing two distinct and concurrent Venezuelan TPS designations. Refer to the Extension and Redesignation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status.
On January 17, 2025, Secretary Mayorkas announced an extension of Venezuela’s TPS status from 2023 for an additional 18 months.
The notification was predicated on Secretary Mayorkas’s assessment on January 10, 2025, that the criteria for the designation remained satisfied. Refer to INA 244(b)(3)(A), (C), and 8 U.S.C. 1254a(b)(3)(A), (C).
In the January 2025 announcement, Secretary Mayorkas neither explicitly extended nor terminated the 2021 designation for Venezuela.
The announcement made it easier for all eligible Venezuelan TPS recipients to apply for TPS by the new deadline of October 2, 2026, regardless of whether they were under the 2021 or 2023 designations, as stated in the DHS memo.
On January 28, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem annulled former Secretary Mayorkas’s decision from January 10, 2025, reinstating the prior status quo.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California suspended Noem’s initiative in March, finding that the depiction of migrants as potential criminals was “unfounded and replete with racism.”
As of late October 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that more than 527,000 people have been deported (removed) since Trump took office on January 20, 2025.
DHS says there were 1.6 million voluntary leaves out of a total of about 2 million departures.
The agency believes these numbers will continue to increase on a monthly and yearly average with more funding and resources.
