Supreme Court Gives Trump Admin Major Immigration Win
President Donald J. Trump scored a decisive victory at the U.S. Supreme Court this week, as even the Court’s liberal justices joined in affirming his administration’s power to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants residing in the United States.
In a stunning 8–1 ruling, the justices lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked the president from terminating the Biden-era Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program — a controversial policy that allowed roughly 300,000 Venezuelans to remain in the U.S. despite overstaying visas or entering unlawfully. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by former President Joe Biden, was the lone dissenter.
“The decision clears the way for the Trump administration to move forward with its plans to terminate Biden-era Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for roughly 300,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the U.S. and allows the administration to move forward with plans to immediately remove these migrants,” the report said.
During oral arguments earlier this month, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the lower court had improperly interfered with the president’s constitutional authority over immigration and foreign policy.
“The district court’s reasoning is untenable,” Sauer said. “The program implicates particularly discretionary, sensitive, and foreign-policy-laden judgments of the Executive Branch regarding immigration policy.”
The Supreme Court agreed — effectively restoring the Trump administration’s ability to enforce immigration law as written.
The ruling comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem formally revoked the TPS designation in a February memo, effective April, declaring that Venezuela no longer met the criteria for temporary protection and that continuing to allow large-scale residency was “contrary to the national interest.”
“After reviewing current country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that Venezuela no longer meets the conditions for the 2023 designation,” Noem wrote. “Specifically, it has been determined that it is contrary to the national interest to permit the covered Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States.”
The decision reverses a series of extensions made under former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who repeatedly expanded TPS eligibility for Venezuelans under President Biden — including overlapping 18-month designations that created legal confusion and opened the door for extended stays without congressional approval.
When President Trump took office for his second term, he moved swiftly to reverse what he called an “open-borders abuse” of the TPS system, which was intended for short-term humanitarian relief — not indefinite residency.
Still, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of California blocked the move earlier this year, claiming the administration’s portrayal of certain migrant populations as security risks was “baseless and smacks of racism.” The Supreme Court’s rebuke of Chen’s decision marks a significant legal and political victory for Trump’s border enforcement agenda.
By siding overwhelmingly with the administration, the justices reaffirmed that immigration enforcement is a core executive power, not a domain for activist judges or bureaucratic overreach.
The ruling is expected to pave the way for the Department of Homeland Security to begin deportation proceedings for Venezuelan nationals who no longer qualify for protection under U.S. law — a move Trump has defended as essential to restoring order, protecting American workers, and upholding national sovereignty.