US President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans as part of his plans to begin mass deportations.
The move comes after a federal judge in San Francisco prolonged their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which had been due to expire in April.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to stop deportations to countries riven by civil strife or suffering from natural disasters.
Explaining his decision, District Judge Edward Chen said that lifting the protection would disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives and would cost the economy billions in lost economic activity.
The US government has disputed the ruling, which it says interferes with its power over immigration and foreign affairs.
The Trump administration raised the issue with the Supreme Court on Thursday, the same day a federal judge in Texas said the president had been incorrectly using an 18th-century wartime law.
Fernando Rodriguez Jr, who was nominated by Trump in 2018, ruled that the president’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport Venezuelans was “unlawful” and that migrants could not be deported from Texas under it.
Trump invoked the law earlier this year claiming that the US was being “invaded” by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
“The proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organised, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation,” Rodriguez wrote.
“Thus, the proclamation’s language cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for purposes of the AEA.”
Responding to the development, Vice President JD Vance said the administration would “aggressively” appeal the ruling.
“The judge doesn’t make that determination, whether the Alien Enemies Act can be deployed,” Vance claimed. “I think the president of the United States is the one who determines whether this country is being invaded.”
