Attorney General Bonta Opposes Trump Administration’s Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and Haitians

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week co-led a coalition of 15 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the Trump Administration’s efforts to deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians by prematurely terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS provides temporary legal status to immigrants living in the United States due to dangerous conditions in their home countries. In the brief, the attorneys general urge the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s order and prevent the Trump Administration’s decisions from going into effect, arguing that the early termination of Haitian and Venezuelan TPS is arbitrary and capricious and thus unlawful.

“The Trump Administration’s ongoing attack on immigrant communities must end now. Temporary Protected Status holders have fled violence and instability. They are here lawfully, and have strengthened California’s economy and communities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “They are not a burden nor a threat, but an asset to California and communities across the nation. We won’t stand by while the Trump Administration makes this cruel and destabilizing attempt to strip their legal immigration status.” 

TPS is a critical humanitarian tool and part of the United States’ long history of providing safe haven to those fleeing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other crises that make the return of TPS holders to their home countries unsafe. Nearly 1.2 million individuals living in the United States are TPS recipients or are eligible for this protection. The termination of TPS grants will harm California, which is home to more than 72,000 TPS beneficiaries, the fourth most of any state. Many TPS holders have lived here for a decade or more and have started families and businesses, bought homes, and significantly contributed to their communities. To revoke these long-standing protections would force families who have established their lives in the U.S. to return to unstable and dangerous conditions. Conditions in both Venezuela and Haiti remain unsafe and have been classified by the U.S. State Department as “Level 4: Do Not Travel” countries, the highest risk designation given due to severe threats.

In the amicus brief, the coalition notes that the Trump Administration unlawfully failed to weigh the impact of the termination on TPS holders as well as many other important considerations, including: 

• Families, including hundreds of thousands U.S. citizen children, who will suffer trauma and hardship from unnecessary and forced separation;
• The economy and workforce, which are enriched by the employment, entrepreneurship, and contributions of TPS holders, with $11.5 billion annually contributed by TPS Venezuelans alone;
• Public revenues, which are enhanced by the taxes contributed by TPS holders, including an estimated $19 billion alone in property taxes; 
• Public health, depriving hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders and their U.S. citizen families of their employer-sponsored health insurance; and
• Public safety, which will be damaged by making TPS holders less likely to report crime.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to protecting the nearly 10 million immigrants who call California home. He has repeatedly supported challenges to the early termination of the TPS designation for Haitians and Venezuelans, and defended pathways for legal immigration for those fleeing dangerous conditions in their home counties. Attorney General Bonta has secured permanent injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s attempts to illegally condition homeland security and transportation funding on state participation in immigration enforcement. And he has temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s efforts to impose cruel new restrictions on access to public benefit programs based on immigration status while litigation continues.

Attorney General Bonta co-led the filing of this week's brief with New York Attorney General Letitia James. They are joined by attorneys general from Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

A copy of the amicus brief is available here.