Supreme Court will let Trump end protected status for Venezuelans
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson decried the decision as “yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket.”
Updated
October 3, 2025 at 7:47 p.m. EDTyesterday at 7:47 p.m. EDT
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem listens to President Donald Trump at the White House in April. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Mark Berman
The Supreme Court said Friday the Trump administration can for now strip temporary protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, pausing a federal judge’s order saying officials had acted improperly on the issue.
The justices wrote in a brief, unsigned order that the case was fundamentally similar to where it stood in May, when the court had also said federal officials could — for the time being — cancel the protections for Venezuelan people.
“The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here,” the order stated.
The issue had returned to the Supreme Court after U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled on Sept. 5 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem broke the law by revoking the temporary protected status of a combined 1.1 million Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants. This protected status allows people from certain countries to remain for a time in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
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The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to pause the parts of Chen’s order relating to Venezuelans while it appealed. The agency did not seek to block the portions related to Haiti, because the protected status for Haitian immigrants will expire on its own in a few months.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson decried the decision as “yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket.”
Updated
October 3, 2025 at 7:47 p.m. EDTyesterday at 7:47 p.m. EDT
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem listens to President Donald Trump at the White House in April. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Mark Berman
The Supreme Court said Friday the Trump administration can for now strip temporary protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, pausing a federal judge’s order saying officials had acted improperly on the issue.
The justices wrote in a brief, unsigned order that the case was fundamentally similar to where it stood in May, when the court had also said federal officials could — for the time being — cancel the protections for Venezuelan people.
“The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here,” the order stated.
The issue had returned to the Supreme Court after U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled on Sept. 5 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem broke the law by revoking the temporary protected status of a combined 1.1 million Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants. This protected status allows people from certain countries to remain for a time in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
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The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to pause the parts of Chen’s order relating to Venezuelans while it appealed. The agency did not seek to block the portions related to Haiti, because the protected status for Haitian immigrants will expire on its own in a few months.