Venezuelans with TPS fear being deported after Supreme Court ruling

A Supreme Court order that provided more questions than answers is jeopardizing the legal immigration status of Venezuelans with TPS.

A 10-year-old Venezuelan girl living in New York City with a special legal protection against deportation has repeatedly asked her mother the same question all week: “Mommy, what am I going to do if immigration comes?”

The girl, her two siblings and her parents are among the 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who have been living and working in the U.S. with temporary protected status, better known as TPS, for the past two years.

But a one-page Supreme Court order issued last week, which provided more questions than answers, jeopardized the legal immigration status of Venezuelans with TPS — eliciting uncertainty, anguish and a sense of betrayal for families at risk of losing their protections.

“That makes you feel very depressed, anxious and distressed,” the mother of the little girl told NBC News in her native Spanish. “This is all terrible.”

With no clear timeline, the Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump and his administration the green light to continue their efforts to end the protections granted to these Venezuelans in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden.