Supreme Court Answers the Question of What You Call 300K Venezuelans Without Legal Residence in the US

RedState 

The Supreme Court brushed aside a petulant attempt by a leftist judge to ignore its ruling and greenlighted the immediate removal of at least 300,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. In a tersely worded opinion, the Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's bid to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans who entered the U.S. under Joe Biden, saying, "Although the posture of the case has changed, the parties’ legal arguments and relative harms generally have not. The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here."

This is how it started. The Secretary of Homeland Security was authorized by the Immigration Act of 1990 to designate migrants from countries facing extraordinary and temporary conditions—such as armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other crises—that prevent their safe return — as having "Temporary Protected Status." This allows them to legally live and work in the U.S. until the "temporary" condition abates. The catch, obviously, is that once they are here, no one in the federal government bothers to tell them to go home once the crisis has passed.

Venezuelans hit the jackpot early in Joe Biden's first and only term when his DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, awarded Venezuelans with that status. Venezuela has been a steaming, effervescent Third World cesspit dating from the reign of Hugo Chavez. There was nothing uniquely bad going on in Venezuela in March 2021 that merited TPS for Venezuelans, other than it was the beginning of Joe Biden's assault on U.S. immigration policy and law. The TPS covered illegals who had continuously resided in the U.S. since March 8, 2021. On September 10, 2022, the designation was extended through March 10, 2024. When that extension expired, Mayorkas again extended it through September 10, 2025. 

The shenanigans began shortly after the September 2022 extension. On October 3, 2023, Mayorkas modified the 2021 designation and expanded TPS eligibility to new applicants who had "continuously resided in the U.S. since July 31, 2023." That would coincide with the arrival of 14 million, that's right, 14 million illegals who entered the U.S. in 2023. And as a final dainty well-sucked thumb in the eye to the Trump administration, Mayorkas announced on January 17, 2025, that he had extended the deadline of TPS to October 2, 2026. 

Naturally, the administration wasn't going to take this lying down. Since then it has been fighting determined, and winning, battle in the courts to revoke all of Mayorkas's actions to protect illegal Venezuelan migrants. Shortly after taking office, Secretary Noem revoked all of Mayorkas's extensions; see Trump DHS Planning to Reverse Biden Admin. Policy That Allowed Over 500K 'Refugees' to Be Flown Into US – RedState and Trump Orders 900,000 Illegals Allowed Temporary Status by Biden to Leave the Country 'Immediately'. Then the lawfare began.

The center of the storm has been the Northern District of California, and a former ACLU lawyer and Obama-appointed Judge Edward Chen. He has even gone full Leeeeeroy Jenkins on the Supreme Court. My colleague and real-life lawyer, Susie Moore, has the details in Despite Supreme Court Stay, Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Revoking TPS for Thousands of Venezuelans. Even after the Supreme Court slapped him down, Chen went ahead and ruled against DHS again; "Judge Chen said he was not bound by the Supreme Court’s order from May, noting it 'did not provide any specific analysis.' ”When DHS appealed, the Ninth Circuit backed the Chen; see New: 9th Circuit Affirms Ruling Enjoining Trump Admin. From Revoking TPS Status for Venezuelans.

Today, this whole story may finally be coming to a close. 

The defeats dealt to an activist San Francisco judge have been mirrored by another defeat meted out to an activist Obama judge in Massachusetts; see Big: Trump Scores Supreme Court Win on Revoking Parole for 500,000 Foreign Nationals.

Termination of TPS for Venezuelans is effective as of November 8.

The reverse flow of illegals to Venezuela will definitely add some spice to the situation brewing in the Caribbean as the Trump administration not only concentrates military forces in the Caribbean but declares a state of "armed conflict" with drug cartels; see US Dusts Off War Plans Against Venezuela As Caribbean Troop Build-Up Gains Velocity – RedState and Big: Trump Calls for Non-International Armed Conflict on Cartels in Memo to Congress. The return of at least 300,000 Venezuelans from the U.S. will certainly not add to the stability of the Maduro regime, which Trump has made no secret that he'd love to see replaced.