Thr Voice News:A federal judge in San Francisco has blocked the Trump administration from invalidating legal documents—including work permits—granted to around 5,000 Venezuelan migrants under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen came on Friday night, challenging a February decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that sought to invalidate documents issued during the final days of the Biden administration. These documents allowed recipients to legally live and work in the U.S. until October 2026, following an 18-month TPS extension for Venezuelans.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the broader termination of TPS for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans, but it did not bar further legal challenges to the invalidation of their individual documents. In response, several Venezuelan migrants and the advocacy group National TPS Alliance filed a lawsuit urging the court to uphold the validity of their paperwork.
Judge Chen sided with the plaintiffs, stating that Noem likely exceeded her authority and that the TPS statute does not permit the revocation of documents already issued. He emphasized that the relatively small number of affected individuals—about 5,000—posed no significant burden to the economy or national security.
“This smaller number cuts against any contention that their continued presence would be a toll on the national or local economies or a threat to national security,” Chen wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security, through spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, criticized the ruling, claiming it undermines presidential authority and delays justice.
Chen’s decision came just hours after the Supreme Court, in a separate case, upheld the administration’s move to revoke temporary immigration “parole” for over half a million migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua—a policy originally implemented under President Biden.