By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to intervene in its bid to strip temporary protected status for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants, a move that would clear the way for their deportation.
The Justice Department asked the justices to put on hold a federal judge’s order that halted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate the temporary legal status that previously was granted to some Venezuelans.
“So long as the order is in effect, (Noem) must permit hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals to remain in the country, notwithstanding her reasoned determination that doing so is ‘contrary to the national interest,'” Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers.
A federal appeals court on April 18 declined the administration’s request to pause the judge’s order.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
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