Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to intervene in removing TPS for Venezuelans

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow it to move forward with the deportation of up to 600,000 Venezuelans, previously protected under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) umbrella. While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked the program's extension in January, a district judge blocked the action in late March, putting the brakes on this White House immigration measure.

Through an emergency request, the Trump administration is seeking to have the nation's highest court overturn the ruling by Judge Edward Chen. Nominated by President Barack Obama, the judge wrote in his ruling that the White House did not follow proper procedure in revoking TPS, remarking that the move was "motivated at least in part by animus." In turn, he noted that eliminating the program would cause "irreparable harm" to the beneficiaries, their families and the U.S. economy.

In this context, the solicitor general, John Sauer, wrote the following in the emergency filing, "its order upsets the judgments of the political branches, prohibiting the Executive Branch from enforcing a time-sensitive immigration policy and indefinitely extending an immigration status that Congress intended to be 'temporary.'”

"Courts irreparably injure our democratic system when they forbid the government from effectuating those policies against anyone anywhere in the Nation. The district court’s universal relief is 'an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the Government,'" he added, while also remarking that Judge Chen is "undermining" U.S. foreign policy.