CNN
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President Donald Trump’s administration urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to unwind deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans that have been temporarily left in place by a lower federal court.
At issue is a decision earlier this year by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to end a form of humanitarian relief known as temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants. A group of Venezuelan nationals covered under those protections challenged the decision as a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which mandates specific procedures for federal agencies when implementing policy changes. They also argued that Noem’s decision was motivated by racial and political bias.
A federal district court in California temporarily blocked that decision from taking effect in late March, preventing the removal of the protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelan nationals.
In mid-April, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declined a request from the Trump administration to block that order.
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The lower court’s order “contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced, and discretionary,” the Trump administration told the Supreme Court in its emergency appeal.
The appeal is the 11th emergency case involving Trump’s second term to make its way to the Supreme Court. The justices are also considering appeals dealing with the firing of board members at independent agencies, an effort to bar transgender service members and a case dealing with immigrants the administration is attempting to remove under the Alien Enemies Act.
The court has asked the lawyers for the Venezuelan nationals to respond by May 8.
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
