On Friday, California District Court Judge Edward Chen once again ruled against the Trump administration in its bid to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Venezuelan and Haitian nationals, entering judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the case styled National TPS Alliance v. Noem. I say “once again” because this is a case that has involved numerous procedural twists and rulings (and isn’t finished yet).
To give some background on how we got to this point:
- On March 31, Judge Chen entered an order granting the plaintiffs’ (several individuals plus the National TPS Alliance (NTPSA)) motion to postpone Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to vacate the extension of the 2023 Designation and to terminate the 2023 Designation (of Venezuelans as elligible for TPS by the Biden administration — a later amended complaint added the TPS as to Haitians into the mix as well).
- The Trump administration appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit, which, like the district court, denied the administration’s motion to stay the ruling pending appeal.
- The administration then filed an application for stay with the U.S. Supreme Court, which, on May 19, granted that application for stay.
- On August 29, the 9th Circuit affirmed the district court’s postponement order.
RELATED: Despite Supreme Court Stay, Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Revoking TPS for Thousands of Venezuelans
New: 9th Circuit Affirms Ruling Enjoining Trump Admin. From Revoking TPS Status for Venezuelans
You may be wondering how the district court could turn around and enter a decision blocking the administration’s TPS revocation. Well, that’s because the SCOTUS stay applies only to the district court’s order on the motion to postpone — i.e., a preliminary procedural ruling — not a final ruling on the merits. This latest ruling by Judge Chen is an actual judgment/ruling on the merits. (And it will, like the prior rulings, be appealed.)
A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from revoking the temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants, calling the administration’s bid to cast them out of the country “unlawful” and based on false rationales.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s move to terminate the “temporary protected status” afforded by the Biden administration was “preordained without any [meaningful] analysis and review.”
The ruling is the latest episode in litigation that has ping-ponged through the federal courts for months. In an earlier phase of the case, the Supreme Court permitted one of Noem’s decisions on the subject to stand while the litigation proceeded in the lower courts. That emergency order from the justices lifted a previous block that Chen had imposed on the TPS revocations.
Chen, an Obama appointee based in San Francisco, said his new ruling did not conflict with the Supreme Court’s prior order because, at that point, the case was in a preliminary posture, and the justices’ decision applied only to a temporary block he had issued. The high court, he wrote, did not prevent him from fully considering the merits of the case and rendering a final judgment on the challengers’ argument that Noem’s policy change violated the federal law that governs agency decisionmaking.
As noted, the decision will undoubtedly be appealed to the 9th Circuit, and from there back up to ths Supreme Court, so there are still several more chapters to come in this TPS saga. RedState will, of course, continue to follow along and report on any notable developments.
Editor’s Note: Radical leftist judges are doing everything they can to hamstring President Trump’s agenda to make America great again.
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