Ninth Circuit Denies Trump Bid to Block Migrant Protections

Temporary protections for several hundred thousand Venezuelan immigrants will continue for now after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s emergency bid to pause a judge’s order.

The administration hasn’t demonstrated it would suffer irreparable harm if a stay isn’t granted, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a one-page order Friday.

The decision is another setback for the Trump administration, which has sought to cancel Temporary Protected Status designations for Venezuela and Haiti as part of a larger rollback of migrant protections. TPS allows immigrants from designated countries to stay in the US and get legal work authorization for up to 18 months when it’s unsafe to return because of conditions like armed conflict or natural disasters.

Last month, Judge Edward Chen of the US District Court for the Northern District of California blocked the Department of Homeland Security from canceling TPS relief for about 350,000 Venezuelans, finding a group of plaintiffs was likely to succeed in showing early revocation of protections was arbitrary and motivated by unconstitutional animus.

DHS asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to stay Chen’s order, arguing that it inflicted irreparable harm by stopping the agency from exercising its authority over the TPS program in furtherance of the national interest. Checn also exceeded his authority by issuing a nationwide order, the government argued.

The Ninth Circuit panel included Judges A. Wallace Tashima (a Clinton appointee), John B. Owens (an Obama appointee), and Roopali H. Desai (a Biden appointee).

The case is National TPS Alliance v. Noem, 9th Cir., No. 25-2120, emergency stay denied 4/18/25.