The Venezuelan TPS lawsuit, formally National TPS Alliance v. Noem, is a federal challenge to the Trump administration’s early-2025 decision to end Temporary Protected Status for roughly 600,000 Venezuelan nationals. Filed February 19, 2025, in the Northern District of California, the case has produced a district court ruling striking down the termination, two Supreme Court stays letting the termination take effect anyway, and a Ninth Circuit decision affirming the lower court. As of mid-2026, the termination of the 2023 Venezuela TPS designation is operative under the Supreme Court’s October 2025 stay, and the broader legal question is expected to be resolved by a separate TPS case the Court is deciding this summer.
What the Lawsuit Challenges
On January 15, 2025, days before leaving office, the Biden administration extended Venezuela’s TPS through October 2, 2026.1CIRA Connect. Biden Administration Announced Extension of TPS for Eligible Nationals On February 2, 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem moved to vacate that extension and terminate the underlying 2023 designation.2Coalition on Human Needs. Trump Administration’s Termination of TPS for Venezuelans Sparks Legal Showdown Noem said the extension was “contrary to the national interest,” cited “notable improvements” in Venezuela, and raised concerns about the Tren de Aragua gang and claims that Venezuela had “purposely emptied out their prisons” into the United States.3U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. National TPS Alliance v. Noem, No. 25-2120 Separately, on September 8, 2025, DHS published a notice terminating the earlier 2021 Venezuela designation as well, effective November 7, 2025.4USCIS. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Venezuela
The National TPS Alliance and seven individual Venezuelan TPS holders sued to stop the termination.5National TPS Alliance. Case Filings Their complaint makes three arguments:
- The TPS statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1254a, contains no mechanism allowing the Secretary to “vacate” a prior designation or extension.
- Even if the Secretary can terminate a designation, the statute forbids the termination from taking effect before the most recent extension expires. Here that date is October 2, 2026, but the administration tried to make termination effective in April 2025.
- The termination is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act and motivated by racial animus in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee. The plaintiffs pointed to public statements by Noem calling some beneficiaries “dirt bags,” “gang members,” and “dangerous criminals.”6Supreme Court of the United States. Opposition to Stay Application, Noem v. National TPS Alliance
The government’s central defense is that the Secretary’s TPS decisions are unreviewable by courts under the statute, and that she has implied authority to rescind a prior Secretary’s extension.7Supreme Court of the United States. Stay Application, Noem v. National TPS Alliance
How the Courts Have Ruled
District Court
Judge Edward M. Chen issued a preliminary order on March 31, 2025, postponing the termination and requiring DHS to continue TPS protections for about 350,000 Venezuelans while the case proceeded.8USCIS. Compliance With Court Order Regarding TPS Venezuela
On September 5, 2025, Judge Chen granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs. He ruled that Secretary Noem lacked statutory authority to cancel a previously granted extension, that her actions were “arbitrary, capricious, and in excess of legal authority in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” and that the termination decisions were “pretextual.”9UCLA School of Law. Federal Court Ruling Offers Resounding Victory for TPS Alliance10Justice Action Center. National TPS Alliance v. Noem (TPS Termination District Court) The court set aside both the vacatur of the January 2025 extension and the termination of the 2023 designation. Chen did not resolve the equal protection claim, concluding that factual disputes about motive needed further development.11Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. National TPS Alliance v. Noem
Supreme Court Stays
The government sought emergency relief at the Supreme Court twice, and won both times.
On May 19, 2025, the Court granted an unsigned, single-page stay of Chen’s March 31 postponement order, allowing termination to proceed while the appeal moved through the Ninth Circuit. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented.12American Immigration Council. Supreme Court De-Documents 350,000 Venezuelans
On October 3, 2025, the Court granted a second stay, this time of the September 5 summary judgment, letting the termination of the 2023 designation take immediate effect.13SCOTUSblog. Noem v. National TPS Alliance The same three Justices dissented, and Justice Jackson wrote a sharp opinion calling the ruling “yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket” and saying the Court had chosen to “disrupt as many lives as possible, as quickly as possible.”14Cornell Law Institute. Noem v. National TPS Alliance, No. 25A326 She noted that the government itself had described Venezuela in January 2025 as experiencing a “complex, serious and multidimensional humanitarian crisis,” and that terminating status exposed roughly 300,000 people to “job loss, family separation, and deportation.”15Supreme Court of the United States. Noem v. National TPS Alliance, No. 25A326
Ninth Circuit
On January 28, 2026, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel affirmed Chen’s summary judgment ruling in full. The panel held that the Secretary’s attempt to vacate TPS was an “attempt to exercise powers Congress simply did not provide under the statute” and “fundamentally contradict[ed] Congress’s statutory design.”9UCLA School of Law. Federal Court Ruling Offers Resounding Victory for TPS Alliance The court also rejected the government’s argument that TPS decisions are entirely shielded from judicial review. Judge Mendoza, concurring, wrote that the Secretary’s decisions were “preordained and rooted in pretext” and were “cloaking animus on the basis of race and national origin.”16U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. National TPS Alliance v. Noem, No. 25-5724
On March 11, 2026, the Ninth Circuit denied the government’s petition for en banc rehearing.17National TPS Alliance. Federal Court Rejects Full Ninth Circuit Review of NTPSA v. Noem Ruling The government’s remaining option is Supreme Court review.
On December 10, 2025, Chen issued a separate declaratory judgment reaffirming the merits of his APA ruling.11Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. National TPS Alliance v. Noem
Where Venezuelan TPS Holders Stand Now
The Supreme Court’s October 3, 2025, stay remains in effect. That means the termination of the 2023 Venezuela TPS designation is operative, and hundreds to potentially thousands of Venezuelan TPS holders have been deported since the order issued.18SCOTUSblog. Temporary Protected Status and the Supreme Court: An Explainer
One group is carved out. Venezuelan TPS holders who received TPS documents with October 2, 2026, expiration dates on or before February 5, 2025, keep their work authorization and valid documentation through that date under a May 30, 2025, district court order. Certain individuals with pending work permit renewals also received automatic extensions of up to 540 days.4USCIS. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Venezuela
Everyone else covered by the 2023 designation has lost protection under the stays, even though both the district court and the Ninth Circuit have found the termination unlawful.
What Comes Next
The near-term future of this case depends less on further filings in National TPS Alliance v. Noem than on a separate case. On March 17, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mullin v. Dahlia Doe, which concerns TPS terminations for Haiti and Syria. Oral arguments took place on April 29, 2026, and a decision is expected by early July 2026.19SCOTUSblog. Court Considers Whether Trump Administration Properly Ended Temporary Protected Status for Haiti That ruling is expected to decide whether federal courts have jurisdiction to review the Secretary’s approach to TPS terminations at all, which would directly govern the Venezuelan case and affect the more than 1.3 million TPS holders across all 17 designated countries.20International Refugee Assistance Project. Legal Teams React to SCOTUS Arguments on Cases Challenging Termination of TPS
The government’s next procedural move in the Venezuelan case, after the March 2026 en banc denial, is whether to file a certiorari petition. If it does, the merits of National TPS Alliance v. Noem could reach the Supreme Court directly. If the Mullin decision arrives first and answers the reviewability question, that ruling will largely dictate the outcome here regardless.