Kaine Joins Bicameral Effort Urging Court to Uphold Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined a bicameral group of lawmakers in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of National TPS Alliance et al. v. Noem, urging the reversal of the Trump Administration’s baseless decision to vacate and terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Venezuela. First granted for Venezuela in 2021, TPS has provided approximately 600,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. with refuge from economic turmoil and humanitarian crisis in their home country and authorized Venezuelans to live and work legally in America.
A District Court ruled in September that the Trump Administration’s decision to vacate and terminate Venezuela’s TPS designation was unlawful. After the Trump Administration appealed the decision to the Supreme Court to request a stay of that ruling, the Supreme Court later sided with the Administration–allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue stripping Venezuelans of their protections to remain lawfully in the U.S. while the case is fully considered in the Ninth Circuit.
As they argued in their amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court, the lawmakers stressed to the Ninth Circuit that the District Court correctly ruled in alignment with the intent of Congress – that the Executive Branch is to determine humanitarian protections such as TPS according to set criteria as opposed to political preferences.
“The Northern District of California properly determined that the plain text of the TPS statute does not support the Secretary’s argument that her actions are unreviewable. Nor does it support the Secretary’s actions with respect to Venezuelan TPS. Instead, the Executive Branch’s interpretation of the TPS statute essentially rewrites the statute to claim a power that Congress did not delegate to the Executive Branch,” the lawmakers wrote.
They also pointed to Congress’ tradition of bipartisan support for TPS and for protecting law-abiding individuals from being sent into harm’s way, writing, “The Secretary’s actions not only violate the TPS statute but also contradict the bipartisan opposition to terminating Venezuela TPS.” The lawmakers continued, “Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have long supported temporary protected status for Venezuelans who fled dangerous conditions in their country – conditions that persist today.”
The amicus brief was led by U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25). In addition to Kaine, a group of more than 120 lawmakers from both chambers of Congress joined the brief.
The full text of the amicus brief is available here.
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