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The nation's top court on Friday gave the green light to the executive branch under Trump to strip TPS benefits from in excess of 300,000 people from Venezuela.

Justices' Interim Decision

The court members enacted an temporary measure, which will be enforced for the duration of the legal proceedings proceed, putting on hold a lower-court ruling that had prevented the White House from revoking TPS benefits for the Venezuelan nationals.

The three liberal justices voiced disagreement.

Additional TPS Terminations

The executive branch has moved to withdraw various protections that enable immigrants to remain in the US and be employed officially, including terminating protected status for a aggregate 600,000 Venezuelans and half a million Haitian nationals who were awarded TPS under the Biden administration.

TPS is provided in year-and-a-half intervals.

Earlier Judicial Intervention

In the spring, the justices overturned a temporary injunction that affected another 350,000 Venezuelans whose TPS benefits lapsed earlier this year.

The supreme court gave no reasoning at the time, which is standard in interim applications.

“The parallel conclusion that we reached in May is fitting here,” the court declared in an unsigned order.

Effects on Protected Individuals

Some Venezuelans have become unemployed and residences while others have been arrested and removed after the court acted the initial instance, lawyers for the migrants submitted to the court.

Opposing Views

“I regard today’s decision as another grave misuse of our interim proceedings,” one justice commented. “Because, respectfully, I cannot tolerate our frequent, unwarranted and harmful intervention with active legal proceedings while lives hang in the balance, I oppose.”

History of Protected Status

Congress established TPS in 1990 to halt removals to states suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or additional hazardous situations.

The designation can be issued by the homeland security secretary.

District Judge's Ruling

The trial court judge ruled that the immigration agency acted “with unusual rapidity and in an unprecedented manner … for the preordained purpose of accelerating the revocation of Venezuela’s TPS designation.”

In prior denying the administration's urgent request, an appellate justice represented a unified appeals court that the district judge had concluded that DHS made its “conclusions initially and sought legal grounds for those decisions subsequently”.

Legal Arguments

The solicitor general had asserted in the latest legal submission that the court's spring ruling should also apply to the current case.

“This case is well-known to the court and involves the growing trend and unacceptable situation of trial courts disregarding this court’s orders on the interim proceedings,” the lawyer stated.

The result, he said, is that the “recent decision, similar to the old one, stopped the vacatur and termination of TPS affecting more than 300k migrants based on meritless legal theories”.