Chciago – September 05, 2025
A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot end temporary legal protections for over 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela. These protections allow them to live and work in the U.S. legally.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, from San Francisco, ruled in favor of the people affected by this decision. His ruling means that 600,000 Venezuelans whose protections had expired in April, or were about to end on September 10, can continue to stay and work in the U.S. The decision also protects around 500,000 Haitians.
Judge Chen criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for trying to revoke these protections, saying it would send people back to dangerous conditions in their home countries, where even the U.S. State Department advises against travel.
The judge called Noem’s actions “arbitrary” and said she went beyond her authority by ending protections that had been extended multiple times under the Biden administration.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is given to people in the U.S. when conditions in their home countries are too dangerous due to things like natural disasters or political instability.
Secretary Noem argued that conditions in Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the U.S.’s best interest to let migrants from these countries stay longer under the program. However, Judge Chen said the way the protections were taken away was not only fast but also broke the law.
