Washington – The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to go beyond the temporary legal protections of 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them.
The Ministry of Justice asked the High Court to render a decision of a Federal Judge of San Francisco who maintained temporary protected status for the Venezuelans who would have otherwise expired last month.
The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their countries of origin are deemed dangerous for return due to a natural disaster or civil conflicts.
A federal court of appeal had previously rejected the request of the administration.
The administration of President Donald Trump has evolved aggressively to withdraw various protections which allowed immigrants to stay in the country, in particular by finishing the TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. TPS is granted by 18 months increments.
The emergency call before the High Court came the same day as a federal judge of Texas ruled illegal from the efforts of the administration to expel the Venezuelans by virtue of a law in wartime of the 18th century. The cases are not linked.
The protections were to expire on April 7, but the American district judge Edward Chen ordered a break on these plans. He found that the expiration threatened to seriously disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and could cost billions of lost economic activities.
Chen, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, noted that the government had not shown any damage caused by the maintenance of the program.
But the Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the name of the administration that the order of CHEN interferes impermitably with the power of the administration on immigration and foreign affairs.
In addition, Sauer told the judges, the people affected by the end of the protected status could have other legal options to try to stay in the country, because the “decision to put an end to the TPS is not equivalent to a final referral order”.
Congress created TP in 1990 to avoid deportations to countries with natural disasters or civil conflicts.
