The San Diego, CA-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has welcomed a United States Appeals Court ruling challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Venezuelans.
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Los Angeles, CA, on Friday unanimously upheld a federal district judge’s ruling that concluded the unprecedented termination of TPS for an estimated 600,000 Venezuelans is illegal.
The panel also held that the federal judge has the authority to decide the case.
“The appellate court’s decision vindicates the district court’s clear, reasoned, and evidenced-based decision to postpone the unprecedented cancellation of TPS status: The Secretary cannot just make up procedures against Congressional statute to irreparably harm people that are protected by law,” HBA Staff Attorney Erik Crew told Caribbean Life.
“It is sad that so many peoples’ lives have already been harmed by this administration’s ongoing campaign of extremist, racist targeting of communities,” he added. “And this order is still subject to appeal, but Haitian Bridge Alliance will keep fighting to mitigate harm already done and to protect all TPS holders, basic human dignity, the rule of law, and the integrity of our nation.”
HBA Chief Executive Director and Co-Founder Guerline Jozef said the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in NTPSA v. Noem “further recognized that TPS holders face severe harm as a result of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s illegal actions.
“They face detention, deportation, family separation, and the loss of employment,” she said. “This decision does not, on its own, protect Venezuelan TPS holders given that the US Supreme Court previously stayed the emergency relief ordered by the district court earlier this year.
“It does, however, mean that the district court is now free to issue its decision on final relief, where it had stayed the case waiting for guidance from the court of appeals,” Jozef added.
The plaintiffs in the case are represented HBA, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law.
“There are now two comprehensive decisions carefully explaining why the Venezuelan vacatur is illegal, but neither has any effect because of the two paragraph unreasoned US Supreme Court order,” said UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy Co-Director Ahilan Arulanantham. “This is not how a rational legal system should work.”
Emi MacLean, attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said that, “Trump has sought to destroy TPS from day one.
“The only courts that have meaningfully reviewed this government’s actions have rejected the government’s extreme position that the administration can do whatever they want, with no regard for current law.”
Jose Palma, co-coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, said that while Friday’s appeals court’s decision “does not give us an immediate solution, it sends a signal that we are on the right side of history.
“By winning a just decision from a court system that is losing credibility for failing to meaningfully check the unprecedented authoritarianism of the Trump administration, immigrants are once again preserving the due process and checks and balances that are the cornerstone of US democracy for all the people of this country,” he said.
Jessica Bansal, an attorney at NDLON, said: “Every day, Venezuelan TPS holders are being fired from their jobs, detained, and deported to a country the State Department says is unsafe to even visit even though the Trump administration had no authority to revoke their lawful status.
“We are hopeful that today’s decision paves the way for a quick final decision from the district court that can restore much-needed protections,” she added.
Cecilia Gonzalez, a Venezuelan plaintiff with TPS, said Friday’s court decision is “a win for the TPS community.
“We are here because our country is in crisis,” she said. “This is why TPS exists.
“The Ninth Circuit has recognized that the Trump administration cannot do away with TPS simply because they don’t like it,” Gonzalez added. “We will keep fighting for our rights under the law.”
Freddy Arape, an IT specialist and TPS holder,” said: “Today’s ruling thankfully shows that the Trump administration is not above the law.
“For me and so many others who fled violence and instability in our home countries, TPS has been a lifeline,” he said. “I am hopeful that the humanitarian protections that Congress created will continue.”
In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit said that Secretary of US Homeland Security Kristi Noem “exceeded her statutory authority when she purported to vacate TPS status for Venezuelans.
“And we hold that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of that claim,” the judges ruled. “Moreover, the district court did not abuse its discretion by determining that plaintiffs face irreparable harm based on the vacatur of the extension of Venezuelan TPS, and that the balance of equities and the public interest favor plaintiffs.”
The three-judge appeals panel said that “the TPS statute is designed to constrain the Executive, creating predictable periods of safety and legal status for TPS beneficiaries.
“Sudden reversals of prior decisions
contravene the statute’s plain language and purpose,” they said. “Here, hundreds of thousands of people have been stripped of status and plunged into uncertainty.
“The stability of TPS has been
replaced by fears of family separation, detention, and deportation,” the judges added. “Congress did not contemplate this, and the ongoing irreparable harm to plaintiffs warrants a remedy pending a final adjudication on the merits.”
