Over the past few months, President Donald Trump and his administration have cracked down on temporary migrants, putting hundreds of thousands at risk for deportation. And while Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), led by Secretary Kristi Noem, continues to roll back protections put into place by the administration of former President Joe Biden, federal courts are engaging in increasingly complex back-and-forth rulings to determine the eligibility of over half a million people for deportation.
On Feb. 5, the DHS released a notice ending the temporary protected status (TPS) of roughly 350,000 Venezuelan migrants residing in the United States, effective April 7, 2025. According to the notice, spearheaded by Secretary Noem, permitting Venezuelan nationals to stay in the United States “is contrary to the national interest of the United States.”
That interest seems to be dictated by President Trump himself, who has long held a hardline approach to immigration. In line with Trump’s often inflammatory rhetoric surrounding immigrants, especially those from Latin American countries, the notice mentions the presence of “members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.”
Despite the Trump administration’s characterization of nearly all migrants as dangerous criminals, less than half of migrants currently held in detention facilities have been convicted of crimes, according to June 5 data.
Venezuelans’ temporary status is related to a larger humanitarian parole program for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV). The Trump administration also terminated the CHNV program – an action a lower court also paused.
Launched in 2022 for Venezuelans under the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and expanded to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023, the CHNV program allows people from these nations – fleeing due to political turmoil and economic instability – to apply for entry to the U.S. for temporary stay of up to two years. Though the parole designation is not a formal immigration status, individuals can apply for asylum. And it is not without its safeguards: migrants must have a U.S.-based supporter.
For Venezuelans specifically, TPS was granted in two rounds during the Biden administration – the first on March 9, 2021 and the second on Oct. 3, 2023. Though the Feb. notice only terminates those Venezuelan nationals under the 2023 designation, the decision still leaves hundreds of thousands of people in limbo as Venezuela continues to face political insecurity.
Ahilan Arulanantham – as a lawyer representing the immigrants challenging the Trump administration – lamented the ruling, noting that the termination of Venezuelans’ temporary protected status “is the largest single action stripping any group of noncitizens of immigration status in U.S. history.”
And soon after the DHS released their TPS notice, federal courts stepped in, quickly escalating the battle between migrants – and their supporters – and the Department. After a temporary pause by a District Court judge, the case quickly made its way to the Supreme Court through an emergency appeal by the Trump administration. On May 19, the Court – in a brief decision without reasoning or explanation – overruled the lower court’s ruling, allowing the termination of TPS for Venezuelan migrants to continue.
Less than two weeks later, on May 30, U.S. Judge Edward E. Chen of the Federal District Court in San Francisco ruled that a small subset of these Venezuelan migrants – around 5,000 – could keep their temporary status.
And also on May 30, the Supreme Court allowed the termination of the CHNV to continue, sending the case back to the lower courts, and likely permitting the DHS to deport migrants as the case moves forward. This decision applies to the roughly 532,000 people granted protective parole.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in their dissent to the decision that the Supreme Court’s ruling “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”