LOS ANGELES – Attorneys for Venezuelan and Haitian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders today filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition to the Trump administration’s request for an emergency stay of a federal court ruling protecting the Venezuelan community. That ruling by Judge Edward M. Chen held that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s attempt to strip Venezuelans and Haitians of TPS was illegal because it failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The government’s request to the Supreme Court would put more than 600,000 Venezuelans at risk of detention and deportation. The government has not asked the Supreme Court to strip protections from Haitians in this proceeding, but is appealing the district court’s order.
The brief argues that the government has failed to show any “emergency” warranting a stay, that the public interest favors allowing TPS holders to maintain their status, that a stay would be devastating for TPS holders and their families, and that the district court and court of appeals correctly ruled the secretary’s actions were unlawful.
Amicus briefs were also filed in the Supreme Court in support of TPS holders by 137 legislators, as well as law scholars and economists.
Please attribute the following statements on the filing of the brief to:
M.H., a Venezuelan plaintiff and member of the National TPS Alliance:
“I am married to a U.S. citizen and the mother of two children, one of whom is a U.S. citizen. I rely on TPS to be able to care for my family. I cannot overstate the pain and fear my family is suffering with the government trying to cancel my legal status, and the legal status of my young daughter. Our presence here is not an emergency, no matter what the government says.”
Jose Palma, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance:
“TPS holders work hard to take care of our families and contribute to this country. The administration's attack on our community is wrong. Two courts have now found it is also illegal. Today, we call on the Supreme Court to uphold the law and deny the stay.”
Jessica Bansal, TPS counsel at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):
“Stripping the lawful immigration status of 600,000 people on 60 days notice is unprecedented. Doing it after promising an additional 18 months protection is illegal. The government claims its inability to violate the law is an emergency, but the only emergency here is that lawfully present immigrants are being fired from their jobs, detained in immigration jails, torn from their families, and deported to a country where the U.S. government says it is unsafe to even travel.”
Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP):
“During the Biden administration, the Supreme Court repeatedly ruled that federal agencies must act within the constraints Congress has imposed, including in immigration cases. Here, DHS Secretary Noem obviously flouted that principle when she tried to take away the protections for Venezuelan TPS holders that had already been granted to them. We hope the Supreme Court will apply the law in an even-handed way, rather than allowing the Trump administration to ignore it.”
Emi MacLean, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California:
“Secretary Noem acted illegally to strip TPS from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans based on pretext and invented authority she does not have. The DHS secretary does not have free rein to ignore the law. The Supreme Court should not endorse the cruel actions of an administration, which seeks to circumvent the law and demolish the humanitarian protections Congress enacted 35 years ago.”
Erik Crew, staff attorney at the Haitian Bridge Alliance:
“TPS holders are lawfully here because they have done what U.S. laws and the Constitution have asked of them. The Supreme Court should affirm what the lower courts have made clear: TPS holders have followed the law, but the Trump administration hasn’t.”
The plaintiffs are represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, and Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA).
See the opposition to the government’s stay application.
See amicus briefs from 137 legislators, economists and law scholars.
