A federal judge in San Francisco has thrown a wrench into Donald Trump’s immigration plans, ruling that his administration overstepped the law by trying to end deportation protections for more than a million Venezuelans and Haitians.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen declared that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the legal authority to scrap Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program shielding migrants from nations hit by war, natural disasters, or political collapse. Chen went further, noting that the attempt appeared tainted by racial bias.
“There is no evidence of any reasoned decision making,” Chen wrote, rejecting the administration’s rationale for rolling back protections.
Trump, who has made immigration crackdowns a signature of his return campaign, had sought to unwind TPS extensions put in place under President Joe Biden—extensions that covered roughly 600,000 Venezuelans and over half a million Haitians. Noem rescinded them earlier this year, claiming circumstances no longer justified the status.
But Chen sided with immigrant groups, saying the move was rushed and lacked proper consultation with federal agencies or a thorough review of current conditions in the affected countries.
TPS, established in 1991, grants temporary legal status and work permits to those unable to safely return home. For now, those protections remain in place, even as the administration is expected to appeal the decision.
The battle is far from over: the Supreme Court has already paused a related ruling, and the fight over TPS could define the future for hundreds of thousands of families living in the U.S. under its umbrella.
