TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) -- It's a last-minute reprieve for Venezuelans across the country.
On Monday, a federal judge in California issued a temporary injunction, postponing a Trump Administration effort to rescind deportation protections.
The ruling allows some 350,000 Venezuelans to remain in the country legally under what's known as temporary protected status.
Immigration Attorney Danielle Hernandez said, "This is a temporary measure, but at least people have one sigh of relief that they know next month they won't have to pack their bags and leave."
A temporary protected status, TPS, is granted to people from countries experiencing extraordinary conditions that make it unsafe for them to return home.
In 2021, Venezuelans were granted TPS, given their country's political turmoil.
Gary Cabrera says his brother lives in Tampa Bay under that protection status.
"He's been here for a while," he said. "He's got 10 years here working, paying taxes."
"Also, he's got his own business," Cabrera continued.
In 2023, the Biden Administration extended the TPS designation for another 18 months.
But in February, Kristi Noem, the new secretary of homeland security, reversed those protections, giving Venezuelans, like Cabrera's brother, until next week to leave the country.
Hernandez explained how a judge in California temporarily postponed that decision Monday.
"Essentially this court said, 'Hey you can't do that; you can't take away that second extension by the Biden Administration'," she said. "At least for now."
Still, with an uncertain future, Cabrera said if his brother loses his TPS, he'd leave the country.
He said, at that point, it'd be too big of a risk to stay.
"It doesn't matter if he works or has his own business, he could get caught by ICE and have to get out with nothing basically," Cabrera explained.
The California judge called Noem's decision "unprecedented," noting that the U.S. government had never abruptly terminated a TPS program before without a significant transition period.