Admin: Strip Legal Migrant Protections 05/02 06:33

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme 
Court to strip temporary legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, 
potentially exposing them to being deported.

   The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a 
federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status 
for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.

   The status allows people already in the United States to live and work 
legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to 
natural disaster or civil strife.

   A federal appeals court had earlier rejected the administration's request.

   President Donald Trump's administration has moved aggressively to withdraw 
various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the country, 
including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. 
TPS is granted in 18-month increments.

   The emergency appeal to the high court came the same day a federal judge in 
Texas ruled illegal the administration's efforts to deport Venezuelans under an 
18th-century wartime law. The cases are not related.

   The protections had been set to expire April 7, but U.S. District Judge 
Edward Chen ordered a pause on those plans. He found that the expiration 
threatened to severely disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and 
could cost billions in lost economic activity.

   Chen, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, 
found the government hadn't shown any harm caused by keeping the program alive.

   But Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote on behalf of the administration 
that Chen's order impermissibly interferes with the administration's power over 
immigration and foreign affairs.

   In addition, Sauer told the justices, people affected by ending the 
protected status might have other legal options to try to remain in the country 
because the "decision to terminate TPS is not equivalent to a final removal 
order."

   Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering 
from natural disasters or civil strife.