Disney suspends dozens of Venezuelan workers after Supreme Court ruling on TPS

Walt Disney Co. reported that dozens of its Venezuelan employees with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be suspended after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can revoke protections granted to more than 350,000 Venezuelans in the country.

This Tuesday, Disney sent an email to Venezuelan employees with TPS notifying them that they would be placed on 30-day unpaid administrative leave effective May 20.

According to Disney, the provision ensures that employees comply with federal law.

“As we sort out the complexities of this situation, we have placed affected employees on leave with benefits to ensure they are not in violation of the law,” Disney said in an e-mail cited by Bloomberg. "We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees and their families, and our HR and legal teams assist employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families."

According to Disney, one of Florida's largest employers, the company's move affected about 45 Venezuelans.

According to Bloomberg, a Venezuelan employee with TPS claimed that Disney refused to let him into his job at a company resort on Tuesday.

Disney's decision comes just days after the Supreme Court endorsed the Trump administration's plan to end TPS that protected hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who immigrated to the country.

Thus, the Supreme Court's ruling vacated the permit that allowed them to live and work legally in the U.S., leaving them at risk of deportation.

The Supreme Court allowed the Department of Homeland Security to cancel the TPS extension approved by the previous Joe Biden administration just before it left office.

Now, more than half of the 600,000 Venezuelans enrolled in TPS will lose their protected status. The rest of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans will remain under protection until September.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that affected Venezuelans can file asylum cases to seek immigration status. According to Rubio, due to the political instability in Venezuela and the abuses of Nicolás Maduro's regime, many Venezuelans in danger will have credible asylum cases.

In parallel, a federal judge in California, Edward Chen, will lead a hearing next week to analyze a lawsuit seeking to halt the Trump administration's plans on TPS. In the past, the same judge had blocked the measure, asserting that it was not supported by sufficient evidence.

While authorizing the cancellation of TPS, the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case and ordered that the program be deactivated while the battle in the courts continues.