While Awaiting A Ninth Circuit Decision (On Trump's Appeal Of A Loss), USDC Judge Chen Is Urged To Keep Marching Toward A Trial Date...

Like the case we just mentioned moments ago (the Ms. L. class action), this one (filed in 2025) is likely to percolate for a decade or two (unless Congress acts to reform the immigration law morass).

So we will continually cover it. And it makes sense for the able USDC Judge Chen to get as much wood chopped as possible here, as soon as possible, as undocumented persons' lives literally. . . hang, in the balance -- with deadlines looming. Here's the latest, filed just a few days ago now -- in SF:

. . .Plaintiffs always want to be respectful of the Court’s time and resources, and appreciate that this matter already has entailed considerable judicial oversight. . . .

Plaintiffs have pressed forward with their claims. . . because that is the only way to protect themselves and their members from ongoing irreparable harm. As this Court has recognized, uncertainty about whether you can continue to live and work in the United States, surrounded by family and friends, or instead may be grabbed off the street and deported to a country that you have never been to, causes irreparable harm. Such uncertainty will only be exacerbated if the Court postpones decisions on pending motions, especially when Plaintiffs have developed the record far beyond what is currently before the Ninth Circuit and press APA claims not considered at the time of the original postponement order and also not before the Ninth Circuit. . . .

Plaintiffs thus object to a stay or postponing resolving pending motions in hopes that the Ninth Circuit will promptly issue a decision that may (or may not) resolve some of the legal questions presented by those motions. As this Court has previously recognized, a stay of proceedings would impose significant hardships on Plaintiffs. Even when not sent to third countries, the approximately 350,000 Venezuelans who hold TPS under the 2023 designation face being deported to a country where they are not safe, separated from their U.S. citizen children, detained in immigration jails, fired from their jobs, and deprived of opportunities to seek other lawful forms of immigration status as a result of the vacatur and termination decisions challenged in this case -- all without any final adjudication of the legality of those orders. These harms are happening now.

Another approximately 250,000 Venezuelans who hold TPS under Venezuela’s 2021 designation are currently set to lose status on September 9, 2025, after which they will face similar harms absent the ability to avail themselves of the January 17, 2025 extension vacated by the Secretary. On the other side, adjudicating pending, fully briefed motions that seek different relief than the postponement motion imposes no hardship on the government. . . .

In short, Plaintiffs hope that the Ninth Circuit will quickly rule on the pending appeal. But there is no such assurance. And if past is prologue, the Ninth Circuit will not have the final say on the questions in this case. Defendants here request not just a stay pending a decision from the Ninth Circuit, but also pending the disposition of any certiorari petition. Plaintiffs’ lives, meanwhile, hang in the balance. Plaintiffs therefore submit that the only avenue to mitigate the irreparable harm and uncertainty endured by Plaintiffs and TPS holders is to resolve the pending motions without awaiting further guidance from the Ninth Circuit. . . .

Now you know. Onward. . . getting excited to see my great, grown, wonderful kids, again -- for a week of sea-side fun, this time -- as opposed to Boise / Half-Iron / racing schedules! Grin. . . .

नमस्ते