Just before an immigration program protecting nearly 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation was set to expire in early April, a federal judge halted the expiration and temporarily extended the protection for another year until May 31.
Judge Ed Chen of Northern California wrote in his lengthy ruling on March 31 that letting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) expire for Venezuelans would harm American communities and cost billions in economic activity. Chen also wrote that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem did not identify “real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries.”
TPS is a temporary form of protection for immigrants fleeing an armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary disasters. The Secretary of Homeland Security designates certain countries for TPS, which then allows any national of that country currently living in the U.S. to register for the benefit.
Chen made his ruling in agreement with the plaintiffs, the National TPS Alliance (NTPSA), who sued Noem for dehumanizing non-white migrants and unfairly ending TPS for Venezuelans.
Although the judge’s ruling argued that the rationale for ending TPS for Venezuela was illogical, the NTPSA’s initial argument was related to procedure. It had claimed that the DHS violated the Administrative Procedures Act while trying to end TPS.
If the judge’s ruling stands, the TPS designation for these Venezuelans will still expire next May. Because many Venezuelans will be unable to qualify for asylum once they lose TPS, they will have to continue living in the U.S. without documentation.
Ultimately, the Secretary of Homeland Security, as defined in the TPS statute, has the power to choose and decide which countries have TPS and whether to terminate or extend TPS designation for any nationality group.
Venezuelans were only recently granted TPS in 2021, while other nationality groups have been living on the status for decades. Nearly 200,000 El Salvadorans have been living on the status since 2001. Although TPS was initially only meant to be used temporarily, it has become a permanent way of life for hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants fleeing extended crises in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Venezuelans are not the only nationality in danger of losing their TPS designation. The Trump administration also revoked a Biden last-minute extension of 500,000 Haitian holders, whose protection expires on August 3, 2025.
Venezuela was first designated for TPS in 2021 after the country experienced a devastating economic crisis beginning in 2018. In 2017, the Trump administration sanctioned Venezuela from accessing U.S. financial markets after the country’s current president, Francisco Maduro, refused to implement liberal democratic elections. Sanctions also blocked Venezuela from shipping its abundant crude oil to any country that uses the U.S. dollar, severely impacting its economy.
Beginning in 2018, the Venezuelan economy began a process of contraction — reducing by almost a third by the end of 2020.
Francisco Rodriguez, a professor at the Korbel School of International Studies, wrote in a Foreign Affairs article that the contraction was equivalent to “equivalent to three Great Depressions.”
The economic crisis, food instability and political violence created the conditions necessary for former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to designate Venezuela for TPS in 2021, and then re-designate the country in 2024.
Since 2020, the Venezuelan economy has somewhat improved, but Maduro, who blatantly stole another election in 2024, remains in power, and the country continues to deal with inflation.
