A Barack Obama-appointed federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from terminating the immigration documents of 5,000 Venezuelan nationals living in the United States.
A federal court in California has halted an attempt by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to revoke approximately 5,000 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) documents.
A TPS designation protects foreign nationals from deportation.
The status also allows them to apply for authorization to work in the United States.
The move from Democrat-aligned Judge Edward M. Chen comes despite the U.S. Supreme Court having already affirmed the Trump administration’s authority to end Venezuela’s TPS designation.
TPS is a limited protection offered only when foreign nationals cannot safely return home.
Shortly before Trump returned to the White House, the Biden administration extended Venezuela’s TPS to October 2026.
However, Secretary Noem terminated that extension on February 5.
Noem cited national interest and security concerns.
The plaintiffs—a group of TPS recipients—argued that even if the broader designation was rescinded, DHS overstepped its legal authority by voiding individual TPS documents already issued.
The district court agreed, ruling the government could not retroactively invalidate those documents.
“Nothing in the TPS statute allows the Secretary to take such action,” the court stated.
The judge granted relief to a narrow subset of Venezuelans who received TPS documents before Noem’s cancellation order.
“The relief here would not extend to all Venezuelan TPS holders but rather a discrete subset—somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 individuals in the government’s estimation,” the court said.
The judge argued that Venezuelans who received documentation based on the Oct. 2, 2026, date are “especially likely to suffer irreparable injury.”
Chen insisted that they have relied on such documentation to make their plans regarding staying in the United States.
Noem’s February 5 order ending the 2023 TPS designation for Venezuela said that such a step is necessary “because it is contrary to the national interest to permit the Venezuelan nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Venezuela) to remain temporarily in the United States.”
In the TPS statute, Congress “expressly prohibits” the Secretary of Homeland Security from designating a country for TPS or extending this designation if the secretary determines that “permitting the aliens to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States,” the order states.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended Noem’s decision, stating:
“TPS is temporary by definition and subject to the DHS Secretary’s discretion.
“District courts have no right to prevent the Executive Branch from enforcing our immigration laws.
“The Trump Administration will continue to deliver on the President’s promises every day for the American people.”
She called the Supreme Court’s support for the administration “an inflection point” against activist judges who attempt to override immigration law.
The decision does not apply to all 350,000 Venezuelan nationals under the original TPS designation, however.
It will only apply to the roughly 5,000 individuals issued documents before February 5.
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