WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to deportation.

The court’s order, with only one noted dissent, puts on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month. The justices provided no rationale, which is common in emergency appeals.

The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.

The high court’s order appears to be the “single largest action in modern American history stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the attorneys for Venezuelan migrants.

“Venezuelans are not criminals,” said Cecilia Gonzalez Herrera, who sued to try and stop the Trump administration from revoking legal protections from her and others like her. “We all deserve the chance to thrive without being sent back to danger.”

The ramifications for the hundreds of thousands of people affected aren’t yet clear, Arulanantham said.

A federal appeals court had earlier rejected the administration’s request to put the order on hold while the lawsuit continues. A hearing is set for next week in front of U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who had paused the administration’s plans.

Homeland Security Praises Decision

In a statement, Homeland Security called the court’s decision a “win for the American people and the safety of our communities” and said the Biden administration “exploited programs to let poorly vetted migrants into this country.”

“The Trump administration is reinstituting integrity into our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe,” said spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.

The case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals President Donald Trump’s administration has made to the Supreme Court, many of them related to immigration and involving Venezuela. Last week, the government asked the court to allow it to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, setting them up for potential deportation as well.

Last week, DHS announced that TPS for Afghanistan, first provided in 2022, would end in mid-July.