National TPS Alliance v. Noem

National TPS Alliance v. Noem is a legal challenge to the Trump administration's early termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuela.  

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a program established by Congress to protect individuals who cannot safely return to their home country due to war, natural disaster, or another emergency. Hundreds of thousands of TPS holders are permitted to live and work in the United States for statutorily defined periods. TPS holders are mothers, fathers, workers and contributing members of our community. 

President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has taken steps to terminate TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians, stripping them of their rights and undermining the program.  

The Trump Administration's illegal revocation of an 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans means that over 350,000 Venezuelans will lose TPS on April 7, 2025, and work authorization as early as April 3, 2025. Another 250,000 are expected to lose TPS in September 2025, instead of retaining protection through October 2026. This will not only rob over 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. of legal status and work permits, but also place them in acute danger if they are forced to return to a country that is in the midst of an unprecedented economic and political crisis. 

On February 19, 2025, the National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelan TPS holders sued DHS to challenge the vacatur of the previously ordered extension of TPS for Venezuela, and the subsequent termination. They are represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA School of Law.  

The suit argues that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The law does not permit early terminations, and DHS failed to follow necessary rules by rushing to its decision without required review. Until now, no administration has ever moved to rescind TPS before the end of the time period established by law and authorized in the federal register.  

The suit also challenges the termination as motivated by racial animus in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection. During the campaign, and in announcing the new TPS decision, Secretary Noem and President Trump have consistently used racist tropes to dehumanize nonwhite immigrants including Venezuelans. 

This case follows from Ramos v. Nielsen, a case challenging the termination of TPS for six countries during the first Trump administration.