Appeals court rules Trump administration unlawfully ended TPS for Venezuelans

Verónica Egui Brito, Miami Herald on Jan 29, 2026

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In a major development in the legal fight over deportation protections for Venezuelans, a federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully moved to end the measure for hundreds of thousands of people from the South American country living in the United States.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, determined that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded the authority granted by Congress when she attempted to terminate the designation. The court concluded that the TPS statute was intentionally structured to limit the executive branch’s discretion and provide stability for beneficiaries during periods of extraordinary conditions in their home countries.

“The Secretary attempted to exercise powers Congress simply did not provide under the statute,” the court wrote, adding that this finding alone resolved the case without requiring judges to address additional legal arguments.

The 81-page ruling emphasized that although TPS is inherently temporary, Congress established strict procedural safeguards governing how the program can be extended or terminated. Those protections are designed to prevent beneficiaries from abruptly losing legal status without the process mandated by law.

“At bottom, this case comes down to the Secretary’s failure to conform to the strictures of the TPS statute,” the panel said, noting that the law contains “numerous procedural safeguards” intended to ensure predictability during extraordinary and temporary conditions.

By affirming a lower court’s decision in full, the appellate court reinforced that any effort to modify TPS must comply with the limits set by Congress, regardless of which administration is in power.

However, the appeals court ruling does not immediately settle the issue. The decision is expected to face further appeals, potentially setting the stage for another review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Until the legal process is exhausted, the future of TPS for Venezuelans remains uncertain.

Venezuela was designated for TPS in 2021 amid severe humanitarian, political, and economic crises that forced millions to flee, providing relief to approximately 257,000 Venezuelans. The designation was expanded in 2023 to cover more than 350,000 additional individuals. Under the Biden administration, these protections were extended through October 2026; however, in 2025 the Trump administration moved to dismantle them, citing alleged improvements in conditions in Venezuela and U.S. national interest, terminating the 2023 designation last April and the 2021 designation last November. Despite these claims, Venezuela continues to experience prolonged instability marked by economic collapse, political turmoil, and widespread hardship, even amid reports surrounding Nicolás Maduro’s capture in early January.

The termination of the TPS directly affected hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans authorized to live and work legally in the United States.

In October 2025, the Supreme Court allowed the termination of Venezuelan TPS to proceed while litigation continued, which led to many beneficiaries losing work authorization and facing legal uncertainty. Some were subjected to detention or deportation.

“Tragically, despite all four judges who have analyzed the termination of TPS for Venezuela finding it illegal, Venezuelan TPS holders will remain without legal status unless the Supreme Court acts to reverse the administration’s actions,” said Emi MacLean, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and one of the lawyers representing Venezuelan plaintiffs.

MacLean added that “the Supreme Court has given the administration free rein to strip people of their rights and place them at immediate risk of deportation, despite the clear evidence of lawlessness this court recognized.”

“This is a wholesale effort to destroy the TPS program, which was created for the express purpose of constraining — in the words of the court of appeal — the ‘raw, unchecked power’ of the executive,” MacLean said.

Although MacLean said she cannot predict how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule, she argued that recent rulings have departed from traditional legal standards and precedent in immigration cases.

“What we do know is that, because of the Supreme Court interventions to date, often through cursory and unexplained decisions, it has essentially allowed what we view as unlawful actions by the administration to go unchecked,” she said.

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