“This is a win for the TPS community. We are here because our country is in crisis. This is why TPS exists,” plaintiff Cecilia Gonzalez said. “The Ninth Circuit has recognized that the Trump administration cannot do away with TPS simply because they don’t like it. We will keep fighting for our rights under the law.”
A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling finding that the Trump administration likely broke the law when it unilaterally terminated “Temporary Protected Status” for more than 600,000 Venezuelan nationals currently in the United States.
“The Ninth Circuit’s ruling in NTPSA v. Noem further recognized that TPS holders face severe harm as a result of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s illegal actions. They face detention, deportation, family separation, and the loss of employment,” the ACLU said in a statement. “This decision does not, on its own, protect Venezuelan TPS holders given that the U.S. Supreme Court previously stayed the emergency relief ordered by the district court earlier this year. It does, however, mean that the district court is now free to issue its decision on final relief, where it had stayed the case waiting for guidance from the Court of Appeals.”
One plaintiff involved in the lawsuit described the ruling as a “win.”
“This is a win for the TPS community. We are here because our country is in crisis. This is why TPS exists,” plaintiff Cecilia Gonzalez said. “The Ninth Circuit has recognized that the Trump administration cannot do away with TPS simply because they don’t like it. We will keep fighting for our rights under the law.”
In a press release, the American Civil Liberties Union emphasized that the Trump administration has repeatedly tried taking action against programs like TPS—and repeatedly found itself foiled by the federal judiciary.
“Trump has sought to destroy TPS from day one,” an ACLU attorney said. “The only courts that have meaningfully reviewed this government’s actions have rejected the government’s extreme position that the administration can do whatever they want, with no regard for current law.”
“Today’s decision does not give us an immediate solution, but it sends a signal that we are on the right side of history. By winning a just decision from a court system that is losing credibility for failing to meaningfully check the unprecedented authoritarianism of the Trump Administration, immigrants are once again preserving the due process and checks and balances that are the cornerstone of U.S. democracy for all the people of this country,” said Jose Palma of the National TPS Alliance.
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