NextFin news, On Friday, September 5, 2025, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 600,000 Venezuelan and 500,000 Haitian migrants living in the United States. The ruling declared that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) move to revoke these protections was unlawful.
TPS is a program established by Congress in 1990 to provide temporary legal protections to migrants from countries experiencing war, natural disasters, or other dangerous conditions. The migrants under TPS are allowed to live and work legally in the U.S. while their home countries remain unsafe.
Judge Chen's 69-page decision criticized DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's action to terminate TPS protections as "unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken" and stated it violated the law. He noted that conditions in Venezuela and Haiti remain dangerous, with the U.S. State Department advising against travel to these countries.
The Trump administration had sought to reverse extensions of TPS granted by the previous administration, including those for Venezuela and Haiti, as part of a broader immigration crackdown. The DHS had announced plans in March 2025 to revoke TPS for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, warning them to leave the U.S. by April 24, 2025.
The National TPS Alliance and Venezuelan TPS holders filed a lawsuit challenging the administration's authority to unilaterally end the program. Judge Chen ruled that Secretary Noem exceeded her statutory authority and acted arbitrarily and capriciously in revoking the protections.
Following the ruling, a DHS spokesperson stated that the TPS program had been "abused, exploited, and politicised as a de facto amnesty program" and indicated the department would consider its legal options, including an appeal.
This decision protects the legal status of over 1.1 million migrants from Venezuela and Haiti, allowing them to continue living and working in the U.S. The ruling also comes amid other recent federal court decisions limiting the Trump administration's immigration and foreign aid policies.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
