US Supreme Court Allows Trump to End TPS for Venezuelans

• May 20, 2025

The US Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to end deportation protections for over 350,000 Venezuelans.

This decision lifts a previous block imposed by a California judge that had kept Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in place for Venezuelans. Without TPS, affected individuals will lose the legal right to live and work in the United States. The program is designed to protect people from countries facing war, natural disasters, or other serious crises, allowing them temporary refuge in the US.

The ruling is seen as a victory for former President Donald Trump, who has pushed hard to tighten immigration rules during his time in office. The Trump administration had planned to end TPS protections and work permits for Venezuelans in April 2025—more than a year earlier than the originally scheduled date of October 2026.

Lawyers for the US government argued that a California federal court overstepped its authority by blocking the administration’s decision. They claimed that only the executive branch should manage immigration and foreign affairs policies, including decisions about TPS.

Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents the TPS holders in the case, criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling, calling it “the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern US history.” He expressed concern that the Court issued the order in a brief two-paragraph ruling without offering any explanation.

“The humanitarian and economic impact of the Court’s decision will be felt immediately and will reverberate for generations,” Arulanantham told the BBC.

Because the ruling came in response to an emergency appeal, the Supreme Court did not provide detailed reasoning for its decision. The only recorded dissent came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

This latest decision adds to a series of immigration-related rulings the Trump administration has asked the high court to decide. In a related move, the administration is also planning to end TPS for tens of thousands of Haitians in August.

Last week, the administration requested that the Supreme Court halt humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. However, not all of Trump’s immigration efforts have succeeded. On Friday, the Court blocked his attempt to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants in North Texas, questioning whether the centuries-old law could be used in such a way.