A federal judge in San Francisco has issued a ruling blocking the Biden administration’s efforts to terminate temporary protections for over one million Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants, defying a recent Supreme Court directive.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, appointed by former President Barack Obama, ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacked legal justification to rescind Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for 521,000 Haitians and 600,000 Venezuelans. The decision comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sought to revoke the protections in February, arguing that the conditions in the migrants’ home countries no longer warranted extended stays.

Chen’s 69-page ruling criticized Noem’s abrupt reversal of TPS extensions, calling it “unprecedented in manner and speed” and claiming it violated federal law. The judge noted that the State Department has warned against travel to both Haiti and Venezuela due to severe instability, including violence and humanitarian crises.

The Supreme Court had previously allowed the Trump administration to end the TPS program for Venezuelans in May, but Chen argued this decision only applied to a temporary injunction he had issued earlier. He asserted that the high court’s order did not prevent him from ruling on the case under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal agency actions.

The Justice Department has indicated it will appeal the ruling, while DHS condemned the decision as a misuse of judicial power. A department statement accused the Biden administration of allowing “millions of unvetted illegal aliens” into the country and labeled the TPS program a “de facto amnesty.”

The case is expected to return to the Supreme Court, where its outcome remains uncertain. Critics argue that activist judges continue to obstruct executive actions on immigration, citing repeated challenges to policies aimed at enforcing border security.