Federal judge smacks Donald Trump with a major roadblock
Trump is doing everything he can to accomplish his agenda. But unelected appointees are gumming up the operation.
And now a federal judge smacked Donald Trump with a major roadblock.
A federal judge stepped in Monday to freeze the Trump administration’s push to end a deportation amnesty for 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, claiming Homeland Security’s move leaned on “negative stereotypes.”
The ruling throws a wrench into President Trump’s efforts to recalibrate immigration policy with a sharper edge.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, an Obama pick based in California, ruled that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem likely overstepped the law by axing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans.
Chen called her justification “entirely lacking in evidentiary support” and refused to let it stand. He argued the migrants faced too much disruption if deported, ordering DHS to keep TPS intact for now.
Chen didn’t hold back, taking a jab at Trump’s “America First” mantra. He suggested that its use by Trump and Noem to defend their policies revealed an “unconstitutional animus” toward migrants.
“The unprecedented action of vacating existing TPS (a step never taken by any previous administration in the 35 years of the TPS program), initiated just three days after Secretary Noem took office, reverses actions taken by the Biden administration to extend temporary protection of Venezuelan nationals that have been in place since 2021,” he chided.
The decision hands a lifeline to one of the Biden team’s last-ditch efforts to shield its immigration framework from Trump’s overhaul.
TPS, designed as a temporary fix for nations reeling from disasters, war, or unrest, keeps citizens from being sent back into turmoil while their home countries stabilize. It offers deportation relief, work permits, and even some taxpayer-funded perks.
Under Biden, TPS ballooned from protecting about 300,000 people in early 2021 to nearly 1.1 million by December.
Venezuela joined the list in 2021, with Biden’s crew repeatedly extending and expanding it to cover 600,000 people. In a final sprint, former Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stretched TPS for Venezuelans another 18 months, aiming to box out Noem.
But Noem swung back hard—first undoing Mayorkas’ extension, then scrapping TPS entirely, putting 350,000 Venezuelans on the brink of losing their legal footing within days. Chen shot down both moves as legally shaky.
Trump’s team counters that Venezuela’s conditions no longer justify TPS and warns the program has let risky characters—like members of the Tren de Aragua gang—slip into the U.S. Chen brushed that off, saying the government failed to prove any TPS recipients were gang members and casting doubt on claims of the group’s threat level here.
One plaintiff, identified as M.H., cheered the ruling. “My daughter and I rely on TPS to live here. Without TPS, I would risk being separated from my husband and young son, both of whom are U.S. citizens,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Though billed as temporary, TPS often digs in for the long haul. Honduras and Nicaragua have been on the list since 1998, covering 60,000 people, while El Salvador’s 174,000 beneficiaries have held status since 2001.
Trump took a swing at ending those during his first term, only to hit a wall of federal judges—like Chen now—who accused him of acting with illegal bias and sloppy reasoning.
Ironically, it was Trump who first gave Venezuelans a break in 2021, issuing a Deferred Enforced Departure order—a presidential flex akin to TPS—just before leaving office. Biden’s squad flipped that into TPS months later, setting the stage for today’s clash.
