A two-paragraph Supreme Court order is upending the lives of some 350,000 Venezuelan migrants who have been allowed to live and work in the U.S. with special legal protection from deportation.
The court’s order Monday allows the Trump administration to strip Temporary Protected Status from the group of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans as a legal case on the matter continues.
Attorneys representing the TPS holders said the Supreme Court’s brief order raises questions, including exactly when the 350,000 Venezuelans will lose their legal protections.
Here’s what we know about the order and what comes next in the case.
Who will be affected by the order?
The Supreme Court order directly affects a group of some 350,000 Venezuelans who were granted Temporary Protected Status in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden for humanitarian reasons. Biden extended the protections for the group in January, allowing them to retain their legal status until October 2026.
The Trump administration has been targeting both undocumented immigrants and those protected under legal programs in service of its goal of enacting mass deportations. President Donald Trump has sought to undo a series of protections granted during the Biden administration, including TPS.
Shortly after Trump took office, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to cancel the Biden administration’s TPS extension, saying that it was “contrary to the national interest” to continue the protections.
Seven Venezuelan TPS holders and the National TPS Alliance sued the Trump administration, arguing that Noem’s order violated legal procedures and was racially discriminatory. In March, a federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal protections while the case played out. The administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
Monday’s order means that the 350,000 Venezuelans can now lose their protected status while the case continues to play out in court.
“This is the largest de-documentation, or loss of legal status, for any group of people in the history of the country,” Emi MacLean, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California working on the case, told NBC News. “It’s really devastating and has an extraordinary effect.”
What is TPS?
Temporary Protected Status is granted to immigrants in the United States who can’t return to their home countries because of natural disasters or political upheaval. It does not provide a path to citizenship.
The Biden administration in March 2021 said because of political instability in the country, Venezuelans were eligible for the federal program, which has existed since 1990 to provide humanitarian relief to people from countries reeling from war, natural disasters or other catastrophes.
People granted TPS have legal status in the U.S. and can get work authorization for up to 18 months, subject to extensions. Without that protection, those immigrants are subject to deportation but can seek other avenues for remaining in the U.S., such as claiming asylum.
When will the Venezuelans lose TPS protections?
Attorneys in the case said the group of 350,000 Venezuelans are now at risk of deportation and in limbo.
Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the lawyers representing Venezuelan plaintiffs, said while the order means the 350,000 Venezuelans are going to lose their TPS status and work authorization, the court’s order did not give a specific timing for the loss of the protected status.
“It could be right now or it could be a week from now, or it could be some other time that’s unclear,” he said during a news conference Monday held after the Supreme Court’s order.
“It’s in the hands of the government to clarify what the order means and how they interpret it,” he said, adding that the legal team could challenge that interpretation in the ongoing court case.
Arulanantham said what also remained unclear was the motivation or reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s order.
“We just don’t know, because they haven’t explained why,” he said.
MacLean said during the news conference that the district court has requested a status report on May 26 about the significance of the order, as well as a hearing on May 29 where both parties “will be discussing and analyzing what it means.”
While the order only directly affects the group of Venezuelan TPS holders who became eligible in 2023, the attorneys said the Supreme Court’s order did not bode well for other TPS holders as their cases continue to play out in court.
What has the Trump administration said about the order?
The decision is a “win for the American people and the safety of our communities,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Monday.
“The Trump administration is re-instituting integrity into our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe,” she added.
The Trump administration on Tuesday declined to comment on how it interpreted the Supreme Court’s order and the timing for Venezuelans’ loss of TPS protections.
The Department of Homeland Security stated on its website that it “has every intention of ending Venezuela TPS under the 2023 designation as soon as it obtains relief from the court order.”
What comes next?
“The litigation continues,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “The Supreme Court’s order leaves it open for the litigation to continue without the protection for the people who are affected by the secretary’s decision.”
“But again, the case now continues under the shadow of an unexplained two-paragraph order with an unclear impact,” Bansal said. “We will continue to fight because we know that we are in the right, both morally and legally.”
MacLean told NBC News the legal team will press forward with its arguments that Noem’s order to terminate the TPS protections is “contrary to law and unconstitutionally motivated by racism.”
Oral arguments in the case were scheduled to be held in July.
“So unless that is advanced, that means that there is a period of two months at least where Venezuelan TPS holders will be at risk,” she said.
MacLean said that if they succeeded in court, it would “return protections for the Venezuelan TPS holders” as well as provide additional protections for 250,000 Venezuelan TPS holders who were granted their status in 2021, as well as some 500,000 Haitian TPS holders. Currently, TPS for Venezuelans who became eligible in 2021 would end in September. The administration would likely appeal that decision.
If the judge ordered against the plaintiffs, their attorneys would also appeal that decision, MacLean said.
“There are going to be additional legal battles that play out. The issue now for us is how quickly we can get back into court to try to return protections to the TPS holders who are at risk today or very soon,” she said.
The attorneys said they would also pursue other forms of immigration protection for the plaintiffs in the case, including tens of thousands of members of the National TPS Alliance who were affected by Noem’s decision. They also encouraged other Venezuelan TPS holders to stay informed on the case and pursue if there are other forms of immigration protection they may be eligible for.
