A U.S. judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from stripping deportation protections for some Venezuelan immigrants, writing that officials’ characterization of the migrants as criminals “smacks of racism.”
In a case brought by the National TPS Alliance, a group that advocates for immigrants, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco paused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to remove temporary protected status from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahilan Arulanantham, a lawyer for National TPS Alliance, said in a statement,
“The Court’s decision provides a crucial protection against mass deportations for a population that this administration has singled out for extreme vilification.”
TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden’s administration first granted TPS to Venezuelans, citing high levels of crime in Venezuela related to political and economic instability under President Nicolas Maduro.
