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The US Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the executive branch under Trump to strip legal protections from in excess of 300,000 Venezuelan nationals.

Justices' Interim Decision

The judges enacted an interim ruling, which will be enforced throughout the legal proceedings are ongoing, freezing a decision by a district judge that had prevented the White House from terminating protected immigration status for the Venezuelan nationals.

The progressive judges voiced disagreement.

Broader Immigration Policy

The Trump government has acted to eliminate several immigration benefits that enable immigrants to remain in the US and be employed officially, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were given legal status during the presidency of Joe Biden.

TPS is provided in year-and-a-half intervals.

Prior Supreme Court Ruling

In the spring, the justices set aside a preliminary order that affected an additional 350k Venezuelans whose TPS benefits lapsed earlier this year.

The high court provided no explanation at the time, which is standard in interim applications.

“The same result that we decided in May is suitable here,” the court stated in an anonymous decision.

Impact on Migrants

Some migrants have lost their jobs and homes while some have been taken into custody and removed after the justices acted the prior occasion, lawyers for the migrants informed the justices.

Disagreement from Justices

“I regard today’s decision as another serious abuse of our emergency docket,” one justice stated. “Because, respectfully, I cannot tolerate our frequent, unnecessary and harmful interference with ongoing litigation while people's futures are at stake, I oppose.”

Origins of the Program

Congress established TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to states suffering from natural disasters, internal conflict or additional hazardous situations.

The designation can be issued by the head of DHS.

Earlier Judicial Determination

The district judge found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acted “with unprecedented haste and in an unprecedented manner … for the preordained purpose of accelerating the revocation of Venezuela’s TPS benefits.”

In previous denying the government's urgent request, a different jurist stated on behalf of a unified appeals court that the lower court had concluded that DHS made its “conclusions initially and sought legal grounds for those decisions subsequently”.

Courtroom Debate

The solicitor general had contended in the new court filing that the court's spring ruling should similarly affect the ongoing proceedings.

“This case is recognized by the court and involves the increasingly familiar and untenable occurrence of district courts flouting this court’s decisions on the emergency docket,” the counsel wrote.

The result, he said, is that the “new order, identical to the earlier ruling, halted the revocation and ending of TPS affecting in excess of 300,000 foreign nationals based on meritless legal theories”.