Trump administration asks justices to have lower court reconsider protected status for Venezuelan and Haitian nationals

In a filing submitted on July 9 and docketed on Monday, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the justices to order the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to reconsider its ruling in a challenge to the decision by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to end protections for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States under a program that allows foreign nationals to remain in the United States and work here when they cannot safely return home.Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designated Venezuela for the program, known as Temporary Protected Status, in 2021 and then redesignated it in 2023. In 2025, he announced that the program would be extended through October 2026. Mayorkas cited a “severe humanitarian emergency” resulting from the “severe political and economic crisis” in Venezuela as the reason for the designation.In 2010, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano designated Haiti under the TPS program, shortly after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the country, killing more than 300,000 people and causing catastrophic damage. That designation was repeatedly extended.After Noem announced her decisions to end the designations, a group representing TPS holders went to federal court in San Francisco to challenge it. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen set aside the decisions, and the 9th Circuit upheld that ruling. Last fall, while that litigation was moving forward, the Supreme Court paused Chen’s order with regard to Venezuela, effective