SAN FRANCISCO (BN24) — A federal judge delivered a significant blow to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown Friday, blocking the termination of temporary legal protections that allow more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela to live and work in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco ruled in favor of plaintiffs challenging Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to revoke protections for approximately 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians under the Temporary Protected Status program.
Chen sharply criticized Noem’s actions, writing that revoking the protections would send migrants back to conditions so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries. The judge characterized the secretary’s decision as arbitrary and capricious, stating she exceeded her authority in ending protections that had been extended by the previous Biden administration.
“Presidential administrations have executed the law for 35 years based on the best available information and in consultation with other agencies, a process that involves careful study and analysis. Until now,” Chen wrote in his ruling.
The decision provides immediate relief to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who faced uncertainty about their legal status. Venezuelan protections had expired in April or were set to expire September 10, while Haitian designations were extended until February following a separate court order from New York.
The ruling represents the latest legal challenge to the second Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, which have terminated Temporary Protected Status and Humanitarian Parole designations for approximately 1.5 million people according to court documents.
Emi Maclean, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, welcomed the decision, saying people had suffered “unspeakable harm including deportation and family separation” due to what she called the secretary’s discriminatory agenda.
The Department of Homeland Security responded defiantly, with a spokesperson calling the program an abused and politicized “de facto amnesty program.” The department said “unelected activist judges” cannot stop Americans’ desire for border security and vowed to use every legal option to appeal the ruling.
Temporary Protected Status allows the Homeland Security secretary to designate countries whose nationals can remain in the United States when conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe due to natural disasters, political instability or other dangerous circumstances. The designation prevents deportation and authorizes work permits for terms of six, twelve or eighteen months, with possible extensions.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country amid political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger caused by years of hyperinflation, political corruption and economic mismanagement. Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 following a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands and left over 1 million homeless. The country continues to face widespread hunger and gang violence.
Noem argued that conditions in both countries had improved sufficiently to justify ending the temporary protections, stating it was not in the national interest to continue what she characterized as a temporary program being used for permanent settlement.
The case has followed a complex legal path, including previous appeals to the Supreme Court. In March, Chen initially blocked the administration’s plans to end Venezuelan protections, but the Supreme Court reversed his order in May while the case proceeded, providing no rationale for their emergency decision.
That Supreme Court reversal led to immediate consequences for protected individuals. Court declarations described Venezuelan TPS holders being fired from jobs, separated from children, detained and deported. One restaurant hostess from Indiana was deported to Venezuela in July after appearing for her annual immigration check-in, leaving her husband unable to work while caring for their baby daughter. A FedEx employee was detained for two weeks after appearing at his required check-in in uniform.
“I am not a criminal,” the FedEx employee stated in a court declaration. “Immigrants like myself come to the United States to work hard and contribute, and instead our families and lives are being torn apart.”
Chen noted that the secretary’s action was unprecedented both in the manner and speed of its implementation and violated established law. Government attorneys had argued that the secretary’s broad authority over TPS determinations should not be subject to judicial review.
Last week, a three-judge appeals panel sided with plaintiffs in a related case, ruling that the Republican administration lacked authority to vacate protection extensions granted by the previous administration.
The government is expected to appeal Friday’s ruling, setting up another potential Supreme Court confrontation over the administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. The decision temporarily halts what immigrant advocates describe as one of the most aggressive immigration crackdowns in recent memory.
The ruling affects individuals who have built lives in the United States over years or decades, many with American citizen children and established community ties. Legal advocates argue that sending these populations back to their home countries would create humanitarian crises while separating families and disrupting communities across the United States.
