Venezuelan TPS Returns Nov. 6 Unless Supreme Court Acts

Venezuelan TPS is on track to return on Nov. 6 for hundreds of thousands of people who lost it in 2025, after the Ninth Circuit on Friday refused the Trump administration’s request to keep a lower-court ruling on hold. The one-page order, filed Oct. 30 by Judges Kim McLane Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza Jr. and Anthony D. Johnstone, leaves the Supreme Court as the government’s last stop before that date.

The government had asked for a stay pending appeal that would take effect the moment the Supreme Court’s own stay expires on Nov. 6, and, failing that, an administrative stay of at least 21 days. The panel denied both requests without explanation and said it would set an expedited schedule to hear the appeal on the merits.

The timing is what makes the order consequential. Temporary Protected Status shields people from deportation and lets them work while their home country is designated as unsafe to return to. For Venezuelans whose status was cut off, the next six days decide whether they wake up on Nov. 6 with lawful status again or remain removable while the case grinds on.

How an expiring Supreme Court stay set the clock

The fight dates to early 2025, when then-Secretary Kristi Noem undid a January 2025 extension of Venezuela’s TPS and terminated the 2023 designation. DHS’s Feb. 5, 2025 Federal Register notice set that termination for April 7, 2025 and estimated that 348,202 people were registered under the 2023 designation alone.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled on Sept. 5, 2025 that Noem exceeded her authority, according to the ACLU of Northern California, which represents the National TPS Alliance and individual holders. The Supreme Court stayed that ruling on Oct. 3, 2025, after having blocked an earlier Chen order in May 2025, ABC News reported at the time. Those stays are why Venezuelans lost status even while they kept winning in the lower courts.

Then the legal ground shifted. On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court decided Mullin v. Doe 6-3, holding that the TPS statute bars judicial review of non-constitutional claims against the Secretary’s designation, extension and termination decisions. On Oct. 5, it vacated the Ninth Circuit’s earlier decision in the Venezuela case and sent it back for another look in light of that ruling. According to Friday’s order, the Supreme Court’s stay of the lower-court order ends when its mandate issues on Nov. 6.

What the Ninth Circuit did not say

Mullin v. Doe looks like strong footing for the government. The administration argued that the decision stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ challenge, according to the ACLU of Northern California’s account of the briefing. The plaintiffs’ lawyers counter that DHS’s actions were unlawful and blame the Supreme Court’s unexplained emergency orders for letting them take effect.

The panel gave no reasons, so the order does not reveal whether the judges think some of the plaintiffs’ claims survive Mullin, or simply concluded the government had not met the demanding standard for a stay pending appeal. That silence matters, because the Supreme Court has sided with the government at both earlier emergency stages of this case. An emergency application to the justices before Nov. 6 is the most likely next move, and the Court’s own recent ruling gives the administration a sharper argument than it had in 2025.

If nothing intervenes, the practical questions arrive fast. The Ninth Circuit’s order does not say which documents will be valid or how holders prove restored status to employers. Bloomberg Law reported that the protections “will be renewed for Venezuelans in the US on Nov. 6,” but the details will depend on how DHS and USCIS implement the lower-court order, which in past rounds of TPS litigation has come through notices on the USCIS website. Employers completing or reverifying Form I-9 for Venezuelan workers will be watching for that guidance.

The case also sits against a wider wind-down. A Congressional Research Service tally counted 13 of 17 TPS countries terminated as of Oct. 22, as detailed in a recent breakdown of the TPS terminations count. Venezuela is one of the largest tests of whether courts can still slow those decisions after Mullin. Related coverage: how Ukraine and Sudan TPS holders kept work authorization past Oct. 19 and what DHS’s 2.2 million enforcement-action tally counts, which includes program-wide TPS terminations.

Dates to watch

Before Nov. 6: any emergency application by the government to the Supreme Court.
Nov. 6: the Supreme Court’s stay expires and the lower-court order takes effect unless the justices act first.
Expedited merits briefing: the Ninth Circuit will set the schedule by separate order.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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