More than 100 Democratic lawmakers have signed on to a federal court challenge that would reverse the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for about 600,000 Venezuelans nationwide.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen. D-Maryland, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman, D-Weston, announced this week they are leading 125 lawmakers who submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The brief, filed in the case of National TPS Alliance et al. v. Noem, argues that the administration’s move to vacate and terminate Venezuela's TPS designation — first granted in 2021— was a "baseless decision" and an unlawful overreach of executive authority.
TPS has allowed Venezuelans refuge from their home country's economic turmoil and humanitarian crisis, granting them permission to live and work legally in the U.S.
Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants.
The high court's emergency order put on hold a lower-court ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco that found the administration had wrongly ended TPS for the Venezuelans. The three liberal justices dissented.
Trump’s Republican administration has moved to withdraw various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. TPS is granted in 18-month increments.
The Democratic lawmakers assert that the San Francisco federal judge's initial ruling was correct, aligning with the intent of Congress that humanitarian protections like TPS should be determined by set criteria, not political preferences.
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“The Northern District of California properly determined that the plain text of the TPS statute does not support the Secretary’s argument that her actions are unreviewable," the lawmakers wrote. Nor does it support the Secretary’s actions with respect to Venezuelan TPS.
"Instead, the Executive Branch’s interpretation of the TPS statute essentially rewrites the statute to claim a power that Congress did not delegate to the Executive Branch.”
Trump’s immigration crackdown is driving many Venezuelans to return home, often to worse conditions than those they left.
Some have made the long, dangerous journey on their own, while others have been flown back after President Nicolás Maduro, under U.S. pressure, agreed earlier this year to accept deportees following years of refusal.
Those returning face runaway inflation, low wages and mounting uncertainty over Venezuela’s political future as the U.S. intensified a military campaign in the Caribbean and offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s arrest, accusing him of drug trafficking.
"Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have long supported temporary protected status for Venezuelans who fled dangerous conditions in their country — conditions that persist today," wrote the lawmakers.
Van Hollen has introduced the SECURE Act, which would provide a path to legal permanent residency for qualified TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients.
Wasserman Schultz co-authored the bipartisan Venezuela TPS Act of 2025 and the Venezuelan Adjustment Act, aimed at restoring lawful status and creating a path to permanent residency for Venezuelan TPS and parole recipients.
