Two lawsuits challenge Trump’s decision to end TPS for Venezuelans

A group of Venezuelans in California and two immigrant advocacy organizations in Maryland have filed two separate lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to rescind temporary immigration protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States.

Immigrant rights groups CASA and Make the Road New York on Thursday announced a federal lawsuit on behalf of their members seeking to reverse the president’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, who could soon face deportation. They argue the administration’s decision to end TPS for Venezuelans in April and September is unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. 

“This unconstitutional action forces nearly 600,000 Venezuelans and their families currently living in the U.S. with TPS protection into the untenable position of potentially being forced to return to a country experiencing what has been described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the history of the Western Hemisphere,” the groups said in a statement Thursday afternoon. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt, Maryland, against the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. 

A Venezuelan single mother and CASA member identified as E.B. said in the statement that the Trump administration’s decision “threatens not just me, but also my son, my elderly parents, and the life we have fought so hard to build.”

“This lawsuit is not just about me: it’s about every TPS holder who has built a life here, every parent fighting for their child’s future, and every family thrown into crisis overnight. We need the courts to intervene before it’s too late,” she said in the statement. 

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits. 

Shortly before leaving office, President Joe Biden extended temporary protection from deportation for Venezuelans until 2026. After Trump’s order, TPS for some 350,000 Venezuelans who became eligible in 2023 would end in April, while TPS for those who became eligible in 2021 would end in September. 

TPS is granted to immigrants in the U.S. who can’t return to their countries because of natural disasters or political upheaval. It does not provide a path to citizenship. 

“The Trump administration’s decision to vacate and rescind Temporary Protective Status for Venezuela represents a major departure from our nation’s promise of equal protection. At its core, the decision is racially motivated, as reflected by numerous statements from the president and his administration denigrating people from the country,” Harold Solis, co-legal director of Make the Road New York, said in the statement Thursday. “While today’s lawsuit focuses on Venezuelans and safeguarding their rights, make no mistake — this is much bigger than protecting immigrants from one country. With this action, the administration is coming for Venezuelans, but they have made clear that they intend to deport, terrorize, and tear apart all immigrant families. We will not be complacent in the face of these threats.”

A separate federal lawsuit against the DHS and Noem was filed in San Francisco on Wednesday by seven Venezuelans and the National TPS Alliance.

Both lawsuits cite comments made by Trump administration officials, which advocates claim shows that the president’s actions were racially motivated and discriminatory, and thus prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment.