The U.S. Supreme Court, on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from invalidating work permits and other documents that granted legal status to 5,000 Venezuelans, a subset class of the nearly 350,000 whose temporary legal protections the U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed to be terminated.

The Saturday order from U.S. District Judge Edward Chen will, for now, allow the work permits and deportation protections for that subgroup to last until October 2026, or until the entire case, which challenges the end of temporary protected status for Venezuelans and Haitians, is decided. 

Those 5,000 Venezuelans were granted extended protections by immigration officials before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on May 19 that allowed the Trump administration to move forward with revoking  protections.

During a hearing last week, Chen said he was considering an order to preserve work permits for that small group of 5,000 Venezuelans. All 350,000 previously held temporary protected status, or TPS, which allows immigrants to live in the United States for a set period because their home country is deemed too dangerous for return.

Chen, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to a seat in the Northern District of California, acknowledged that last month’s Supreme Court decision created a small group of Venezuelans who had gotten work permits approved until October 2026 — before the high court’s order moved up the date their TPS status expired, which was April 7.

Chen in March blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary protections for the group of all 350,000 Venezuelans. Last month’s Supreme Court order means that those Venezuelans will be able to continue to challenge in court the end of their work permits and the possibility of removal, but they no longer have protections from deportation.

The case is also before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear oral arguments in July.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will allow, for now, the Trump administration to terminate temporary protections for a group of 350,000 Venezuelans, striking down a lower court’s order that blocked the process.

The order still means the group of Venezuelans on Temporary Protected Status — a designation given to nationals from countries deemed too dangerous to return to remain in the U.S. — will be able to continue to challenge in court the end of their work permits and the possibility of removal. But they no longer have protections from deportation. 

No justices signed onto the ruling, which is typical in cases brought before the high court on an emergency basis, but liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted she would have denied the request.

TPS status for that group of Venezuelans — a portion of Venezuelans living in the United States, not all of them — was set to end on April 7 under a move by the Trump administration.

But U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California in March blocked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to vacate an extension of TPS protections that had been put in place by the Biden administration until October 2026.

The case is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Chen, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, blocked the Trump administration from removing protections for that group of Venezuelans on the basis that Noem’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” and potentially motivated by racism.

“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote in his order.

Noem cited gang activity as her reason for not extending TPS for the group of 350,000 Venezuelans, who came to the United States in 2023.

A second group of 250,000 Venezuelans who were granted TPS in 2021 will have their work and deportation protections expire in September. Chen’s order did not apply to the second group of Venezuelans.

Those with TPS have deportation protections and are allowed to work and live in the United States for 18 months, unless extended by the DHS secretary.

Democrats criticized Monday’s decision, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet.

“Ending protections for Venezuelans fleeing Maduro’s regime is cruel, short-sighted, and destabilizing,” he wrote on social media.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington state, wrote on social media that Venezuelans “face extreme oppression, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and torture — the exact type of situation that requires our government to provide TPS.”

Monday’s order is one of several immigration-related emergency requests from the Trump administration before the Supreme Court.

Last week, the high court heard oral arguments that stemmed from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.

And justices in a separate case, again, denied the Trump administration from resuming the deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.