TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The U.S. Supreme Court is clearing the way for the Trump administration to end the protected status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan citizens living in the United States.

On Monday, the justices released an order pausing a ruling by a federal judge that had blocked the secretary of homeland security from terminating Venezuelan’s protections.

Now the question is: What could this mean for Venezuelans in Tampa Bay?

News Channel 8 went to Immigration Attorney Danielle Hernandez to find out.

“There are people in the Tampa Bay area that are highly stressed and don’t know what this means to them,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Well, does my license expire? Can I still go to work tomorrow?'”

A temporary protected status, TPS, is granted to people from countries experiencing extraordinary conditions that make it unsafe for them to return home.

A couple examples include war or an environmental disaster.

In 2021, Venezuelans were granted TPS, given their country’s political turmoil.

In 2023, the Biden administration extended that designation for another 18 months.

In February, Kristi Noem, the new secretary of homeland security reversed those protections, giving many Venezuelans until April 2 to leave the country.

But a judge in California temporarily suspended that decision in late March.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services addressed that decision with the following alert:

“The Administration is committed to restoring the rule of law with respect to TPS. On Feb. 3, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s vacatur of the Jan. 17, 2025 notice that extended a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Venezuela was published in the Federal Register. On Feb. 5, 2025, the Secretary’s decision to terminate TPS under the 2023 designation for Venezuela was published.  On March 31, 2025, Judge Edward Chen, a federal judge in San Francisco, ordered the department to continue TPS for Venezuelans. See National TPS Alliance, et al., v. Kristi Noem et al., No. 3:25-cv-01766 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 31, 2025). The court did so even though the TPS statute says that TPS decisions are not subject to judicial review. For more information, please see the Federal Register notice. DHS has every intention of ending Venezuela TPS under the 2023 designation as soon as it obtains relief from the court order. Further updates regarding TPS Venezuela will be posted on this webpage. Separately, TPS under the 2021 designation for Venezuela remains in effect through Sept. 10, 2025.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials specifically noted, “[The Department of Homeland Security] has every intention of ending Venezuela TPS under the 2023 designation as soon as it obtains relief from the court order.”

That brings us to Monday when Hernandez said the Supreme Court temporarily paused that order granting a motion to postpone agency actions that were issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

“The government is free to move forward with ending TPS the way they see fit,” Hernandez said.

News Channel 8 reporter Nicole Rogers asked, “What will this mean for the people who, before, had to be out by early April?

“Technically, right now, that’s the $100M question,” she said. “We know what we know.”

“We know the government is free to move forward with their plan to dismantle it and do away with it,” she continued. “I don’t know precisely what this means for those people, they are in the state of a limbo.”

Her advice?

“If you have your attorney, make sure you stay up to date on what you have going on, what you have pending, and a copy of all of your documents,” Hernandez explained.