Haitians, Nicaraguans worry about impact of Supreme Court’s Venezuela TPS ruling
A U.S. Supreme Court order on Monday allowing the Trump administration to terminate immigration protections and work permits for as many as 350,000 Venezuelans has lawyers and advocates worried about the decision’s potential effect for Haitians, Nicaraguans and others in the United States who have Temporary Protected Status.
“It is very concerning and may indirectly affect the TPS protections for Haitians and other TPS holders, who are currently challenging what we still see as very clearly illegal, not to mention, immoral and unjust actions,” Emi MacLean, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Monday during a press call with the National TPS Alliance and other groups.
On Monday, the high court issued an order vacating a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place TPS for Venezuelans that that administration wanted to end last month. Lawyers noted that the justices offered no rationale and left many questions in the air on how their narrow order should be interpreted. They said they plan to continue to fight in court and noted there are other federal lawsuits being waged on behalf of TPS holders. Still, lawyers and immigration advocates said, the decision was “terrible” and exposes potentially as many as one million migrants, hailing from more than a dozen nations in conflict, to deportation.
“The Supreme Court did not explain what it found convincing” about Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s decision to revoke Venezuelan TPS “and the precise impact of its ruling but, overall, this is not a good sign for consideration of the TPS statute and other TPS holders, like Haitians, by the court,” said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe for Refugees International.
The brief decision, which was handled on the high court’s emergency docket, “rescinds protection and throws hundreds of thousands people in limbo without explanation instead of allowing the stay to remain in place while the lower court considered the merits of the case,” Schacher said.
Bottom line: The decision is a bad omen for other TPS holders, including more than a half million Haitians whose 18-month TPS extension was rescinded by Noem.
Instead of ending on Feb. 3, 2026, as the Biden administration had implemented, the protections for Haitians were moved back to Aug. 3. Noem has not said what would happen after that date, but immigration advocates and lawyers believe the rollback was a preemptive decision to eventually end TPS altogether. Lawyers suing the government over the decision involving Haitians will present oral arguments in a New York federal court on May 28.
TPS came into existence in 1990 with a designation for El Salvador, whose nationals still enjoy the protections today. In his first term, Trump sought to end the program but was successfully challenged in the courts.
There are currently at least four different lawsuits in federal courts challenging the Trump administration on not just the rollback of TPS after it was extended for Haiti and Venezuela by the Biden administration but also related to his ending a two-year humanitarian parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and ordering individuals to leave the U.S.
On Monday, lawyer and advocates were still trying to understand the Supreme Court’s decision and how it could affect non-Venezuelan TPS holders, as well as on and other legal cases moving through the courts.
“In terms of our [legal ] case, the Supreme Court’s decision does not implicate Haiti’s TPS designation,” Sejal Zota, legal director with Just Futures Law, which filed suit in March against Trump and Noem on behalf of several Haitians with TPS, as well the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association and Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.
The Supreme Court decision only stayed the implementation of the lower court’s temporary order for the 350,000 Venezuelan TPS holders, she stressed.
“Significantly, it did not reach the merits of the case and does not deprive courts of jurisdiction to review these claims. Moreover it recognizes that certain individual beneficiaries are entitled to challenge the termination of their work authorization documents,” Zota said. “But it is devastating news for Venezuelan TPS holders and creates extraordinary risks for them moving forward.”
Paul Christian Namphy, the political director of Family Action Network Movement, said the Miami-based Haitian rights organization stands in solidarity with the National TPS Alliance, the Venezuelan American Caucus and countless advocacy groups in denouncing “this reckless decision, which sows fear and uncertainty in communities that depend on TPS to live and work in dignity.
“This ruling is a devastating blow to Venezuelan families who sought refuge in the United States from political turmoil, economic collapse, and humanitarian crisis,” Namphy said. “It is unconscionable to strip them of work authorization and the ability to support their families, only to return them to a nation still gripped by instability and insecurity.”
His organization, he said, is calling on leaders across all branches of the U.S. government to act urgently to restore the vital protections and safeguard work authorization for individuals who strengthen the U.S. economy and contribute daily to society.
In the case of Haiti, it would mean sending Haitians back to a country wrestling with unprecedented levels of violence by armed gangs, a deepening humanitarian crisis, economic collapse and political instability that many fear will eventually force Haitians to take to the high seas.
The decision is equally devastating for Nicaraguans, whose initial TPS designation was granted in 1999, after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998. There are about 2,925 Nicaraguans under TPS protection, according to the National Immigration Forum.
Their status is scheduled to end on July 5, after multiple extensions.
“We have no country to return to,” said Arturo McFields, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States.
McFields said Monday’s decision is a severe blow to the fight for freedom and democracy, especially because “we share a common pain, a shared anguish,” among Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Cubans.
“These countries have been stolen and destroyed by dictatorships that have no respect for human laws or divine laws,” he said. “In the case of my Nicaragua, if they can burn churches and desecrate temples, what couldn’t they do to someone returning from the United States? That’s why this is such a sensitive issue—it’s not like any other immigration case.”
McFields, who was ambassador from October 2021 to March 2022, denounced the Daniel Ortega regime during a session at the OAS, stating that he was speaking on behalf of more than 177 political prisoners and over 350 people who have lost their lives in Nicaragua since 2018.
He emphasized that for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuela’s, TPS is not merely an economic issue —it is a “life-or-death issue for many of us.”
Harold Rocha, president of the Nicaraguan American Legal Defense and Education Fund, based in Washington, said the decision is a heavy blow, but not insurmountable.
The case would have to be brought back to litigation, and “we are fully prepared to do just that.”
Unlike Haiti and Venezuela, which had their TPS status extended by President Joe Biden before he left office, Nicaragua’s circumstances are slightly different, Rocha said. Its status was not extended beyond July 5 and Trump and Noem can choose to keep the status in place.
Still, like immigration advocates, Rocha is awaiting to better understand the Supreme Court decision’s implications.
Rocha said his group was expecting some announcement from the Trump administration earlier this month, as the law requires a statement 60 days before the expiration of TPS, and it did not happen.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM.
