Appeals court clears Trump to end temporary protections for migrants from Central America and Nepal
Appeals Court Greenlights Trump Administration to End TPS for Central America and Nepal Migrants
A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, clearing the way for it to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted an emergency stay that overturned a lower court’s order maintaining the protections. The panel, which included judges appointed by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, said the earlier injunction would remain suspended until further notice.
The ruling immediately affects around 7,000 Nepalese whose TPS protections expired August 5, leaving them at risk of deportation. Another 54,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans face the loss of legal protections on September 8.
TPS, granted by the Department of Homeland Security, shields people from deportation and allows them to work if returning to their countries is unsafe due to natural disasters or conflict. Hondurans and Nicaraguans have held the status since Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998, while Nepalese were designated following the 2015 earthquake.
Rights advocates warn that ending the program could uproot families who have lived legally in the United States for decades. “The administration is systematically stripping protections from immigrants who have raised children, built businesses, and contributed to their communities,” said Jessica Bansal of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the decision, saying conditions in the countries no longer justify TPS extensions. The Trump administration has argued that repeatedly renewing TPS turns it into “a substitute for asylum.”
The administration has already rescinded TPS for more than a million migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Cameroon, though several of those moves remain entangled in lawsuits.
The Supreme Court earlier this year allowed the administration to end TPS for Venezuelans. The next hearing on the Central America and Nepal case is scheduled for November 18.
