Trump admin blocked from revoking work permits for 5,000 Venezuelans

Day after over 500,000 migrants, including Venezuelans, lost their right to temporarily live and work in the United States after the Supreme Court ruling, a federal judge on Saturday, May 31, prevented the Trump administration from canceling work permits and legal documents for about 5,000 Venezuelans.

US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said in a ruling that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely exceeded her authority when she invalidated those documents.

On May 19, the US Supreme Court lifted an order Judge Chen had issued preventing deportation protection to Venezuelans. But the high court stated specifically it was not preventing any Venezuelans from still challenging Noem's related decision to invalidate documents they were issued pursuant to that program that allowed them to work and live in the United States.

Such documents were issued after the US Department of Homeland Security in the final days of Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure extended the TPS program for the Venezuelans by 18 months to October 2026, an action Noem then moved to reverse. Also Read | Trump Administration offers $1,000 to illegal migrants who voluntarily self-deport

The temporary protected status is granted to people or migrants who had experienced a natural disaster or armed conflict in their home countries. Judge Chen figured that the administration estimated only about 5,000 of the 350,000 Venezuelans held such documents.

“This smaller number cuts against any contention that the continued presence of these TPS holders who were granted TPS-related documents by the Secretary would be a toll on the national or local economies or a threat to national security,” Chen said.

Just a day ago, the Supreme Court let the Trump administration immediately strip the legal right to temporarily live and work in the US from as many as half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

(With Reuters inputs)