The Trump administration's effort to strip hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants of legal protections is unlawful, a U.S. judge says.

The ruling by District Judge Edward Chen sets aside the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) attempt to end temporary protected status (TPS) for people from countries experiencing conditions that make it dangerous to return.

This ruling will allow around 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians to continue living and working legally in the United States. The DHS has indicated it will appeal the decision.

The TPS program was established by Congress in 1990 to provide temporary protections for migrants from countries experiencing war and natural disasters.

In a detailed 69-page decision, Judge Chen emphasized that the actions taken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in revoking these protections were unprecedented and illegal. He stated that the conditions in the migrants' home countries were so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel there.

Following the ruling, a DHS spokesperson claimed that the TPS program had been abused, politicized, and suggested it operates more like an amnesty program. They expressed intent to explore their legal options.

Currently, approximately 600,000 migrants from Venezuela hold TPS, which was initially extended during the Biden administration to include other nations like Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Ukraine. The Trump administration, upon returning to power, aimed to terminate these expansions and revoke protections for Venezuelan migrants.

As part of this crackdown on immigration, the administration planned to revoke TPS for various countries, including Venezuela, in early March. This decision faced lawsuit challenges from advocacy groups, leading to the recent ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court had previously ruled in May that the Trump administration could end TPS for Venezuelans; however, Judge Chen clarified that this ruling only dealt with preliminary measures and did not prevent him from issuing new orders.

In a concerning development for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. recently ruled that they cannot continue cuts to foreign aid, requiring the administration to allocate funds as authorized by Congress.

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