The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday handed a major victory to the Trump administration, allowing it to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for as many as 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants, a move that could eventually lead to deportations.

The 6–3 ruling came in response to an emergency request from the administration, which has been seeking to roll back a Biden-era policy that extended humanitarian protections to Venezuelans fleeing political and economic turmoil.

High Court Overrules Lower Judge

The justices overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of California, who had ruled on Sept. 5 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem failed to follow proper procedures in terminating TPS for Venezuelans.

In a brief order, the Supreme Court said that while the procedural posture had shifted since an earlier challenge in May, “the parties’ legal arguments and relative harms generally have not. The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here.”

Dissent From Liberal Justices

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a sharply worded opinion criticizing the majority for repeatedly intervening in immigration disputes at the request of the Trump administration.

“I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance,” Jackson wrote. “I dissent.”

What Comes Next

The ruling gives the Trump administration a green light to proceed with revoking protections, though the timeline for enforcement remains unclear. Immigrant rights groups warned that the decision could leave hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans — many of whom have lived and worked in the U.S. for years — vulnerable to detention and deportation.

The administration has argued that Judge Chen’s order effectively defied the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in May, when it first granted an emergency request in the same case. Lower courts disagreed, noting that the high court had not provided a detailed rationale at that time.

Friday’s decision underscores the conservative majority’s pivotal role in shaping immigration policy and sets the stage for a fierce political battle over the fate of Venezuelans in the U.S.