Summary
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment setting aside the Secretary of Homeland Security’s vacatur and termination of Venezuela’s Temporary Protected Status designation and partial vacatur of Haiti’s designation. The court held that the TPS statute does not authorize the Secretary to vacate an existing designation and that the statutory judicial-review bar does not preclude challenges alleging that the Secretary exceeded her authority. The court also concluded that the Secretary’s actions were arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(5)(A) bars judicial review of claims that the Secretary exceeded her statutory authority under the TPS statute.
- Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1) bars APA set-aside relief concerning unlawful TPS actions.
- Whether the Secretary possesses express, implied, or inherent authority to vacate a prior TPS designation or extension.
- Whether the Secretary lawfully terminated Venezuela's TPS before the expiration of the most recent extension.
- Whether the Secretary lawfully partially vacated Haiti's TPS extension by shortening its duration.
- Whether the district court abused its discretion by granting relief extending beyond the named plaintiffs.
Holdings
- Section 1254a(b)(5)(A) does not bar judicial review of a claim that the Secretary exceeded her statutory authority.
- Section 1252(f)(1) does not bar a court from setting aside unlawful agency action under APA § 706.
- The Secretary lacks express, implied, or inherent authority to vacate a prior TPS designation, extension, or termination of a designation for a foreign state.
- The Secretary exceeded her statutory authority by terminating Venezuela's TPS effective before October 2, 2026, the expiration date of the most recent extension.
- The Secretary exceeded her statutory authority by partially vacating Haiti's TPS extension and shortening its duration.
- The district court did not abuse its discretion by setting aside the Venezuela and Haiti actions in full rather than limiting relief to the named plaintiffs or organizational members.
Key quotations
“But by its plain language, the statute does not grant the Secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation.” (2)
“Section 1254a(b)(5)(A) simply cannot bear the weight of the Government’s expansive interpretation.” (21)
“American Trucking therefore articulates an exceedingly narrow inherent power: agencies may correct clerical mistakes, but not substantive ones, and may do so only if not prohibited by statute.” (31)
“The Secretary lacks the inherent authority to revoke or reconsider a prior designation, or extension or termination of a designation, of TPS to a foreign state.” (38)
“Congress could not have been clearer: the Secretary could terminate Venezuela’s TPS with at least sixty days’ notice and with an effective date no earlier than October 2026.” (42)
Factual background
The Secretary of Homeland Security vacated an eighteen-month extension of Venezuela's TPS designation, terminated Venezuela's TPS effective before the expiration of that extension, and partially vacated an extension of Haiti's TPS by shortening its duration. The Secretary's actions were taken shortly after the change in presidential administrations and without following the ordinary interagency consultation and country-conditions review process described in the opinion. The district court found the actions unlawful under the TPS statute and the APA and set them aside.
Procedural history
Plaintiffs filed suit in the Northern District of California challenging the Secretary's actions concerning Venezuela's and Haiti's Temporary Protected Status designations. The district court postponed the Venezuela vacatur, later granted Plaintiffs partial summary judgment, and set aside the Venezuela vacatur and termination and the Haiti partial vacatur. After prior emergency stay proceedings in the Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court, the Government timely appealed the merits order. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.