Disney suspends Venezuelan workers on Supreme Court ruling
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Walt Disney Co. notified Florida-based employees who are losing temporary legal residency in the U.S. that their jobs would be terminated next month after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration could revoke protections for 350,000 Venezuelans.
The company sent an email to employees under temporary protected status on Tuesday stating they had been placed on a 30-day unpaid leave effective on May 20.
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Those who are unable to provide new valid work authorization at the end of the leave will be fired, according to the internal communication viewed by Bloomberg.
A Venezuelan employee under TPS status who worked for a Disney resort was turned away from the premises when he reported to work on Tuesday, the worker said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
“As we sort out the complexities of this situation, we have placed affected employees on leave with benefits to ensure they are not in violation of the law,” Disney said in an email. “We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees and their families, and our HR and legal teams assist employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families.”
About 45 workers are affected, the company said.
The move by Burbank-based Disney, one of the largest employers in Florida, follows the Supreme Court’s decision to let the Trump administration end legal protections for Venezuelans under TPS, stripping them of the right to temporarily live and work in the US and opening many of them to the prospect of deportation.
The rights of Venezuelan immigrants have become a recurring Supreme Court issue. The justices on Friday extended an order that blocks the administration from using a wartime law to send about 176 alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious Salvadoran prison.
The latest decision lets the Department of Homeland Security cancel a TPS extension the Biden administration put in place just before leaving office. The move will affect more than half of the 600,000 Venezuelans now covered under the program. Others remain under protected status through September.
A federal judge in California is set to hold a hearing next week on the case challenging the Trump administration’s plans to end TPS for Venezuelans. U.S. District Judge Ed Chen had previously blocked the ending of the protections, saying the government’s rationale “is entirely lacking in evidentiary support.”
The Supreme Court ruling didn’t address the merits of the original lawsuit but gave the government permission to end the program while litigation continues.
There are about 360,000 people in Florida with TPS status, 60% of whom are from Venezuela. TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to protect migrants from countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster or other catastrophes. Today, nationals from 17 countries are covered under the program. Venezuela was added to the list in 2021, after a period of economic and political collapse under President Nicolas Maduro.
Zerpa writes for Bloomberg.
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