A federal judge on Friday stopped the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that allow more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela to live and work in the United States.
The ruling came from US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco. His decision means that about 600,000 Venezuelans, whose protections had already expired in April or were set to expire on September 10, can continue to stay and work in the country.
Judge Chen said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went beyond her legal authority when she ended three extensions of the program that had been granted by the previous administration. He also called her actions “arbitrary and capricious.”
The Department of Homeland Security has not yet commented on the ruling.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is a program the Homeland Security secretary can use to protect people in the US if their home countries are unsafe to return to because of natural disasters, political instability, or other dangerous conditions. TPS is granted in periods of six, 12, or 18 months, and can be extended as long as those conditions remain severe. People with TPS cannot be deported and are allowed to work legally.
After taking office, Secretary Noem ended the three extensions that had been granted to Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants. She argued that conditions in both countries had improved and that continuing the program was not in the national interest, since TPS was meant to be temporary.
But Venezuela is still in a deep crisis. Millions have fled the country due to political unrest, hunger, unemployment, and years of hyperinflation and corruption.
Haiti first received TPS in 2010 after a devastating 7.0 earthquake killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people and left more than a million homeless. Today, Haitians continue to face widespread hunger and escalating gang violence.
