Appeals Court: Administration Illegally Stripped Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans

The Trump administration acted illegally when it stripped Venezuelan immigrants of protections meant for people fleeing unsafe conditions, a federal appeals court ruled on Jan. 28. 

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling finding that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans last year. 

The decision comes as the U.S. escalates its involvement in Venezuela following the Jan. 3 military operation to abduct President Nicolás Maduro, which killed 100 people, including 32 Cubans, according to Venezuelan authorities. The Trump administration framed the action as necessary in response to what it described as catastrophic conditions in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in the U.S. are facing renewed uncertainty about whether they will be allowed to remain or forced to return to a country the U.S. government itself now acknowledges is unstable.

While the appeals court ruling will not immediately restore protections for Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., it adds legal weight to immigrant advocates’ claims that the government’s own actions undermine its assertion that Venezuela is safe.

In a statement released Jan. 6, Hispanic Federation President and CEO Frankie Miranda called on the administration to protect Venezuelan immigrants, warning that they are now “caught between mass deportation on the one hand and unresolved political and economic turmoil on the other.”

“First, they fled their native country to escape political instability, economic collapse and state-sponsored oppression,” Miranda said. “Now, the Trump administration launches military operations targeting Venezuelan assets, claiming catastrophic conditions in the country. These measures have only confirmed what Venezuelans in the United States have argued for years — that it is tragically unsafe for them to return to their native country, and that it would be an unfathomable cruelty to force them to do so.”

Advocates say the uncertainty Venezuelans are facing is not isolated, but part of a broader contraction of U.S. immigration protections.

Stephanie Gee, senior director of U.S. legal services at International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), which provides legal advocacy for refugees and asylum seekers, told Prism that the Trump administration is shrinking protections for Venezuelans and people from other countries “that are facing upheaval and instability and have, in recent years, produced the conditions that force a lot of people to flee for their safety and their well-being.”

Gee described a “multipronged attack” on immigration pathways: efforts to prevent Venezuelans from entering the U.S., moves to revoke existing protections and new scrutiny of people who already have lawful status.

According to Hispanic Federation leaders, the policy whiplash is already having severe consequences for Venezuelan families across the country. They say Venezuelan parents are afraid to go to work, children fear separation from caregivers and families are avoiding medical care or reporting crimes because of deportation concerns.

“Families are living in constant fear and uncertainty about the future,” Jessica Orozco Guttlein, the Hispanic Federation’s senior vice president for policy and communications, said in an email.

Orozco Guttlein said some parents are now completing legal paperwork designating caretakers for their children in the event they are detained or deported. “The psychological toll is immense,” she added.

Community organizations are also reporting a surge in requests for help since the U.S. military action in Venezuela. Many Venezuelans previously relied on TPS for work authorization and protection from deportation, which ended abruptly after the administration claimed that conditions in Venezuela had improved last February.

“This, combined with a lack of guidance for Venezuelans after the detention of Maduro, has resulted in many Venezuelans feeling abandoned and betrayed,” Orozco Guttlein said

Adding to the confusion, Noem recently suggested that Venezuelans who lost TPS protections have “the opportunity to apply for refugee status.” Advocates say that the claim is not supported by existing policy. Meanwhile, affirmative asylum has also been paused since December, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is not processing any asylum applications. 

“In order for anyone to be granted refugee status in Venezuela, there needs to be a refugee admissions program that functions and exists,” Gee said. The Trump administration has effectively dismantled that program, she noted, making it “very hard to see how they plan to offer anyone from Venezuela refugee status.”

Orozco Guttlein echoed those concerns, saying that refugee status generally requires applicants to be outside the U.S. 

“Claiming that Venezuelans could apply for refugee status only served to create false hope,” she said, “while offering no actual protection” from detention or deportation.

Advocates argue that the administration’s military actions in Venezuela directly undermine the rationale used to revoke TPS and to further undermine asylum claims.

“How can the government argue that a country is safe for return while simultaneously conducting military operations there?” Orozco Guttlein said. “We are hopeful that more recent developments could serve as the foundation for restoring TPS and serve as a prime example of why TPS  is a necessary lifeline, even with changes in [Venezuela’s] administration.”

She added that the revocation of TPS was already legally questionable and that recent developments could serve as evidence that the government knew conditions in Venezuela were deteriorating even as it moved to strip protections.

Gee also pointed to cases in which refugees with lawful status are being reinterviewed and detained, including in Minnesota, where IRAP is defending refugees who were previously vetted and admitted through formal resettlement programs.

“We invited refugees to this country, we put them through years of grueling interviews and background checks to prove that they’re eligible for protection here, and [ICE is] now going after them in their homes, arresting them in their parking lots, and flying them to detention centers across the country,” Gee said. “I think that is sending an incredibly scary message around what this administration thinks the U.S.’ approach to protection and safety for people from other parts of the world should be.”

The government has cited concerns about fraud, but Gee called those claims “pretextual,” noting that refugees already undergo extensive vetting.

“Really it’s just about advancing a policy agenda that is explicitly xenophobic, white supremacist and nationalist,” Gee said.

The Hispanic Federation is urging the administration to take several immediate steps, including reinstating TPS for Venezuela, halting deportations, releasing detained Venezuelans, and issuing clear guidance on available legal protections.

If TPS is not reinstated, the organization says alternatives such as Deferred Enforced Departure, humanitarian parole and prosecutorial discretion could offer temporary relief, though advocates stress that TPS remains the most appropriate and legally sound solution.

“The moral imperative is clear,” Orozco Guttlein said. “We are talking about forcing people into danger and potentially death for political expedience.”

The organization is also calling on Congress to hold hearings and demand accountability, warning that continued deportation flights and increased detention would signal a failure to confront the administration’s contradictory approach.

“Silence is not an option,” Orozco Guttlein said.

Gee said broader accountability is also critical.

“All of these actions are signaling to the whole world that the U.S. is at this point of no return of needing to decide if it will be abiding by the fundamental principles of refugee protection,” Gee said.

Prism is an independent, nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.