US judge blocks Trump from invalidating 5,000 Venezuelans' legal documents

1/6/2025 6:20

A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from invalidating work permits and other documents granting lawful status to about 5,000 Venezuelans, a

subset of the nearly 350,000 whose temporary legal protections the U.S. Supreme Court last week allowed to be terminated.



U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco in a Friday night ruling concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely exceeded her authority when she in February invalidated those documents while more broadly ending the temporary protected status granted to the Venezuelans.



The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 lifted an earlier order Chen issued that prevented the administration as part of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda from terminating deportation protection conferred to Venezuelans under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program.