DHS sued over stripping of deportation protections for Venezuelans
Immigration advocates have filed two suits challenging the Trump administration's stripping of deportation protection for some Venezuelans in the United States.
The suits target a move by Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to rescind Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans who have fled to the U.S. in recent years.
The January order from Noem impacts two clusters of Venezuelans.
“Secretary Noem took two illegal actions within one week of assuming her role at the head of DHS. Three days after her confirmation, she ‘vacated’ an extension of TPS protections for Venezuelans residing in the United States, just weeks after the extension was duly published in the Federal Register. Two days later, she terminated TPS for the Venezuelans who initially registered in 2023. These actions have the effect of robbing 600,000 Venezuelan TPS holders of the right to live and work in this country for the next 18 months,” the National TPS Alliance wrote in its suit.
“DHS’s recent actions ignore the statutory scheme that Congress enacted and instead threaten to force lawfully-admitted and TPS-eligible Venezuelans and their families to return to a country experiencing one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the Western Hemisphere,” nonprofit CASA wrote in its suit.
Former President Biden had given the protection, meant to shield from deportation those unable to return to their country due to unrest or a natural disaster, to Venezuelans at multiple points during his administration.
With Noem’s vacatur, Venezuelans who were given TPS in 2021 will be able to remain in the country through September while those who received it in 2023 will be able to retain them through April.
According to the National TPS Alliance suit, Noem doesn’t have the authority to walk back the earlier TPS designation.
“The Secretary’s actions are illegal for multiple reasons. At the outset, DHS has no authority to ‘vacate’ a prior TPS extension. The TPS statute tightly regulates the conditions under which TPS decisions can be made, setting time periods and other procedural rules that must be followed for both extensions and terminations,” they wrote
It also said Noem’s decision was based on her view that TPS is illegal, despite the creation of the status under law.
“Neither their disdain for TPS nor the Secretary’s decision can nullify a statute,” they wrote.
In announcing the move on Fox News, Noem called migrants “dirtbags” and said the new order shows “we were not going to follow through on what he [Biden] did to tie our hands, that we are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country, including the Venezuelans that are here.”
The DHS did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Biden administration decision to extend TPS for Venezuelans was based on conditions on the ground in the country. Under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has seen a massive exodus.
At least 7.7 million people had fled the country as of last year, a figure various groups have estimated as being between 20 percent and 25 percent of the total population.
Maduro has been accused of obscuring his loss in the most recent presidential election, with Edmundo González currently recognized by the United States as Venezuela’s president-elect.
In addition to political unrest, the country is facing widespread food shortages.
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