A federal appeals court rejected on Friday a request by President Donald Trump's administration to allow it to move forward with stripping temporary legal protections for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, exposing them to imminent deportation.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause a lower-court judge's March 31 order halting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's decision to terminate the temporary protected status that was granted to Venezuelans.