A federal judge determined that US government arguments are not very convincing and said that the many derogatory and false comments in which they label Venezuelans as criminals show that racial animosity was a motivator to cancel protections
A Federal Court of Appeals of San Francisco left in force this Friday, April 18, the order of a lower court that prevents the government of President Donald Trump from ending the temporal legal protections of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
The panel of three judges of the Court of Appeals of the 9th United States Circuit denied the request of the National Security Department to establish an emergency suspension while appealing. The court wrote that the Government “has not shown that it will suffer irreparable damage in the absence of a suspension.”
The federal district judge, Edward Chen, determined in March that the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, illegally revoked the protections granted by the government of former president Joe Biden that allow some 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States. These temporary protections would expire earlier this month.
Noem also announced the end of the temporary protection status (TPS) for about 250,000 Venezuelans in September and for 500,000 Haitians whose TPS protections would expire in August.
*Also read: TPS for Venezuelans will remain in force until October 2026, following judicial ruling
The lawyers of the Department of Justice representing the Government argue that Congress granted the secretary a clear and broad authority on the TPS program and that decisions are not subject to judicial review.
“This appeal implies an extraordinary intrusion by a district court in the administration of the TPS statute by the secretary,” they wrote.
Congress created TPS, as the law is known, in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries that suffer from natural disasters or civil conflicts. The program authorizes that people live and work in the United States in increases of up to 18 months if the Secretary of National Security considers that the conditions in their countries of origin are insecure to return to it.
When blocking the administration, Chen said that hundreds of thousands of people, their families and livelihoods were at risk of a serious disturbance, as well as the health of communities throughout the country and the billions of dollars in economic activity generated by Venezuelan workers.
He pointed out that the Government failed to identify any “real damage that contrasts to continue the TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries” and that the plaintiffs may probably be successfully demonstrated that Noem’s actions “are not authorized by law, are arbitrary and capricious, and are motivated by unconstitutional animosity.”
Chen found that government’s arguments are not convincing and said that Nosem’s numerous derogatory and false comments – and Trump – in which they label Venezuelans as criminals show that racial animosity was a motivator to cancel protections.
“Acting based on a negative group stereotype and generalizing this stereotype to the whole group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote.
With information from AP
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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