The Supreme Court has authorized the Trump administration to immediately end immigration protections that allowed about 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. to legally work and avoid deportation.

In a decision issued Monday, the justices approved an emergency appeal from the Trump administration, which is seeking to limit the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. Under TPS, the Secretary of Homeland Security can grant legal status and work permits to immigrants from countries facing humanitarian crises.

The Biden administration used TPS twice to protect an estimated 600,000 Venezuelans. But shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration moved to reverse those protections.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem officially terminated the 2023 TPS designation that had newly covered 350,000 Venezuelans. She also attempted to roll back two extensions enacted in Biden’s final days in office, which would have allowed all Venezuelan TPS holders to retain their protections through October 2026.

In March, a federal district judge in San Francisco, Edward Chen, blocked Noem’s actions, ruling they were legally flawed and appeared to rely on “sweeping negative generalizations” linking Venezuelan immigrants with violence.

However, in a brief order without an explanation, the Supreme Court overturned Chen’s ruling while litigation continues in lower courts.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, also without explanation.

The high court’s order hinted that Venezuelans who already received work permits or documentation extending their status through October 2026 may still retain protection. But immigrant rights groups say those individuals represent only a small fraction of the total affected.

“This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, a law professor at the University of California and an attorney challenging Noem’s moves. “That the Supreme Court authorized it in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking. The humanitarian and economic impact of the Court’s decision will be felt immediately, and will reverberate for generations.”

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin praised the ruling.

“Today’s SCOTUS decision is a win for the American people and the safety of our communities,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “The Trump Administration is reinstituting integrity into our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”

The Supreme Court’s decision allows the Trump administration to revoke TPS for the 350,000 Venezuelans who gained protection under the 2023 Biden designation.

An earlier group of 250,000 Venezuelans had received TPS through a 2021 Biden order. Those individuals would have remained protected until October 2026 under the Biden plan, but now risk losing their status in September 2025 under Trump’s policy. Noem has not yet stated whether she plans to terminate TPS entirely for Venezuelans at that time.

Trump officials have criticized the TPS program for offering too many extensions and failing to end protections even after original emergencies subsided.

While limiting TPS aligns with Trump’s broader agenda to restrict both legal and illegal immigration, the political impact could be significant.

Roughly 175,000 Venezuelan TPS holders live in Florida, where the Venezuelan-American community has become a vital voting bloc for candidates in both parties.

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