Lawsuits challenge Trump's end to deportation protections for Venezuelans

Adds second lawsuit in paragraphs 1-4

By Nate Raymond

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Several Venezuelans and three immigrant rights groups have sued President Donald Trump's administration over its decision to end temporary protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in the United States.

The first of two U.S. federal lawsuits was filed in San Francisco on Wednesday by the National TPS Alliance, a group that advocates for immigrants who have been granted temporary protected status, and seven Venezuelans living in the U.S.

A second lawsuit was filed on Thursday in Greenbelt, Maryland, by rights groups CASA and Make the Road New York.

Both lawsuits challenge the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's February 3 decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 348,000 Venezuelan immigrants, more than half of all Venezuelans in the program.

The decision means they could face deportation and the loss of work permits in April. The rest of the roughly 600,000 Venezuelans in the program could lose the legal status and associated benefits in September.

TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.

The move to end TPS for Venezuelans was part of the Republican president's broader campaign to crack down on immigration and humanitarian programs he says go beyond the intent of U.S. law.

DHS did not respond to requests for comment.

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden's administration first granted TPS to Venezuelans, citing high levels of crime in Venezuela related to political and economic instability under President Nicolas Maduro.

The lawsuits allege that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her department lacked legal authority to vacate a decision by Biden weeks earlier to grant an 18-month extension of temporary protections for Venezuelans.

Even if the department did have legal authority to rapidly withdraw such protections, it arbitrarily deviated from past practice while doing so and wrongly assumed that Venezuelans with TPS were in the country illegally, the National TPS Alliance argued.

Its lawsuit cited statements by Noem, Trump and others who the plaintiffs said had incorrectly claimed Venezuelans were residing in the country illegally.

Both lawsuits allege the Noem's decision was at least partially motivated by what it called unconstitutional "racial animus." They pointed to an interview Noem gave Fox News announcing her decision in which she labeled Venezuelans granted protected status as "dirtbags."