by Immigration Reform Law Institute
—Today, the Supreme Court suspended, or stayed, a lower court’s order that was keeping Venezuelans granted an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by the Biden Administration in the country while a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s rescission of that extension went through the courts. The ruling means that the Trump rescission is back in effect, and the Venezuelans may be sent home, while the case proceeds. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) had filed a brief in the Supreme Court urging that result.
Just before leaving office, Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, extended TPS for Venezuelans for an additional 18 months. President Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, finding that many of the Venezuelans getting TPS are in the terrorist gang Tren de Aragua, reached a contrary determination, and rescinded that extension.
Plaintiffs claim that Noem acted unlawfully in this rescission, arguing that the statute bars a secretary from reconsidering prior actions. The district court hearing the case adopted plaintiffs’ view, and postponed Noem’s action while the case proceeded.
In its brief supporting the government’s emergency application to the Supreme Court to stay or suspend this order, IRLI showed that, according to longstanding Supreme Court precedent, the President here exercised his inherent authority, as Commander-in-Chief, to protect the nation by excluding aliens, and that the TPS statute should be interpreted not to infringe on this authority.
Today, in staying the lower court’s order, the Supreme Court signaled that, as IRLI had argued, the chances that plaintiffs would prevail on the merits of their lawsuit were low.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized the President’s inherent authority to exclude aliens, and ‘inherent’ clearly means he may exercise it even when he is not guided by a specific statute,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “Because the President has this power, and the secretary was acting as his agent, plaintiffs’ claims must fail. We are pleased the Court refused to rule to the detriment of this vital presidential authority, and granted the stay.”
The case is Noem v. National TPS Alliance, No. 24A1059 (Supreme Court).
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