WashingtonOn Wednesday, a federal appeals court backed with the Trump administration and temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that had maintained temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Nepal and Central America.
As a result, the Republican government can begin the process of expelling an estimated 7,000 individuals from Nepal whose Temporary Protected Status designations ended on August 5. On September 8, 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans will lose their TPS designations and legal status, making them eligible for removal.
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The lead complaint, National TPS Alliance, claims that the administration violated the law by terminating Temporary Protected Status designations for individuals from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the emergency stay pending an appeal.
The judges, who are appointees of Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump and Democrats Bill Clinton, wrote that the district court’s judgment granting the plaintiffs’ petition to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending additional orders from this court.
The Homeland Security secretary has the authority to issue Temporary Protected Status, which keeps migrants from being deported and permits them to work. More persons are now eligible for deportation as a result of the Trump administration’s vigorous efforts to remove the protection. It’s a component of the administration’s larger plan to deport large numbers of immigrants.
If a natural disaster, political unrest, or other hazardous circumstances in their home countries make it unsafe for them to return, Secretary Kristi Noem may grant Temporary Protected Status to immigrants already in the United States.
TPS holders from Nepal have been in the United States for over ten years, according to immigrant rights organizations, while those from Honduras and Nicaragua have been here for twenty-six years, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
Jessica Bansal, an attorney at the National Day Laborer Organization, said in a statement that the Trump administration is methodically de-documenting immigrants who have been in this country for decades, raising children who are citizens of the United States, establishing businesses, and making contributions to their communities.
After concluding that the conditions no longer merited protections, Noem terminated the programs.
In a scathing ruling on July 31, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson of San Francisco maintained the safeguards for the duration of the litigation. November 18 is the next hearing date.
According to her, the administration terminated the safeguards afforded by migrant status without conducting an impartial assessment of the nation’s circumstances, including the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua and political unrest in Honduras.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded by saying that although TPS was never intended to be a de facto asylum system, it has been used in that manner for decades by prior administrations.
Approximately 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, over 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands of individuals from Afghanistan and Cameroon have already had their TPS classifications revoked by the Trump administration. Federal courts are still considering lawsuits against some.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys contended that Noem’s rulings were illegal as they were influenced by racial hatred and predetermined by campaign pledges made by President Donald Trump.
However, U.S. deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign stated during a hearing on Tuesday that the government’s incapacity to implement the measures it has deemed necessary causes it to continue to suffer irreversible injury.
Gerardo Torres, the deputy foreign minister of Honduras, called the appellate ruling regrettable on Wednesday. According to him, the government expects that the temporary status will at least give Hondurans some time to find another lawful method to remain in the United States.
He stated that we must wait to see what the National TPS Alliance decides, even though it is probable that the matter may be taken all the way to the US Supreme Court.
The Trump administration was granted permission by the U.S. Supreme Court in May to terminate TPS designations for Venezuelans. The justices did not rule on the underlying claims and did not offer any justification, which is typical in emergency appeals.
This article was written by Marlon Gonz lez, an Associated Press correspondent in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
