US federal court rules government cannot remove existing protections from Venezuela and Haiti migrants News
Ray_Shrewsberry / Pixabay
US federal court rules government cannot remove existing protections from Venezuela and Haiti migrants

The US District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to provide legal protection for Venezuelan and Haitian migrants. Over 1 million migrants from the two countries faced deportation under a plan from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

At issue is a DHS plan to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) as provided by 8 U.S. Code § 1254a. Immigrants from designated countries are granted safe haven in the US when their home countries are too dangerous, due to armed conflict or natural disaster. For example, Haiti was designated for TPS in 2010 after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless.

Conditions in Venezuela and Haiti are dangerous. The State Department advises against travel to both countries due to crime, unrest, and risk of kidnapping. DHS had planned to end TPS for approximately 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians by vacating an extension granted by the Biden administration’s Secretary of DHS, Alejandro Mayorkas.

US District Judge Edward M. Chen wrote:

Secretary (of DHS Kristi Noem) did not have the authority, statutory or otherwise, to vacate a prior extension of TPS and that her vacatur decision was arbitrary and capricious for procedural reasons, e.g., in failing to consult with the appropriate agencies and thus must be set aside under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) … The Trump Administration and DHS Secretary Noem took the extraordinary and unusual act of vacating TPS extensions that had already been granted – specifically, extensions given by the prior administration to Venezuela and Haiti… As a matter of law, the Secretary’s decision to terminate the 2023 Designation was unlawful because it was based on the unlawful decision to vacate.

Judge Chen granted plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on the APA claims related to the Venezuela vacatur, the Venezuela termination, and the Haiti partial vacatur. He found those decisions to be unlawful and set all of them aside.  He anticipated appeals to the Ninth Circuit and possibly the Supreme Court, but issued a final judgment on the APA claims, writing, “There is no just reason for delay.”  He temporarily stayed his orders on other parts of the suit, pending the expected appeals.

The order comes at a time of escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela.  On Wednesday, the US Navy sank a Venezuelan fishing boat with alleged ties to the cartel Tren de Aragua, killing 11 people.  On Thursday, two Venezuelan F-16s flew over the US Navy destroyer USS Jason Dunham near Venezuela.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Lincoln offered amnesty to Confederates

On December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation offering amnesty to all citizens of the Confederacy who swore an oath to uphold the US Constitution. Because of confusion over who was to administer the oath, Lincoln issued another proclamation on March 26, 1864, empowering "any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval in the service of the United States", as well as those persons in the territories which were "not in insurrection who were by the laws therefore qualified for administering oaths." Both Proclamations specified that military prisoners and others held for crimes against the United States were ineligible for amnesty, although Confederate deserters could volunteer to take the oath.

South American Union formed by Cusco Declaration

On December 8, 2004, the leaders of all 12 countries in South America signed the Cusco Declaration, creating the Union of South American Nations. The organization is intended to evolve into a union similar to the European Union with a Presidency, Parliament, Central Bank and eventual single currency.