U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court unanimously ruled Friday the Trump administration likely acted unlawfully when it revoked extensions for temporary protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit panel agreed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s March decision to block Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to vacate two extensions of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to the group until October 2026 that the Biden administration put in place early this year.
One of the groups of Venezuelans had their TPS expire in April and the second is set to expire in September. The three-judge panel found that the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS in April is also likely unlawful.
The panel said Noem did not have the authority to revoke the TPS extensions granted by then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Judges Kim McLane Wardlaw, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, Salvador Mendoza Jr. and Anthony Johnstone, who were both appointed by former President Joe Biden, reached the decision.
The judges ruled that the law creating TPS, which grants work visas and deportation protections to nationals from a country deemed too dangerous to return to, was designed to create “predictable periods of safety and legal status for TPS beneficiaries” and the administration’s cancellation of the extension contradicted that goal.
“Sudden reversals of prior decisions contravene the statute’s plain language and purpose,” they wrote. “Here, hundreds of thousands of people have been stripped of status and plunged into uncertainty. The stability of TPS has been replaced by fears of family separation, detention, and deportation.”
“Congress did not contemplate this, and the ongoing irreparable harm to Plaintiffs warrants a remedy pending a final adjudication on the merits,” they continued.
A spokesperson for DHS did not return a message seeking comment Friday.
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration in May to end TPS for the group of 350,000 Venezuelans that expired in April. It is unclear how Friday’s order will affect that group.
The roughly 250,000 Venezuelans in another group are set to have their TPS expire Sept. 10 after the DHS revoked the extension.