A federal appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for around 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocks a lower court decision that had kept protections in place.
The move paves the way for the possible removal of 7,000 Nepalese migrants whose TPS expired on August 5, and for 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans whose legal protections are set to expire September 8. Once those dates pass, affected individuals will become eligible for deportation.
TPS allows migrants to stay and work legally in the U.S. if their home countries are deemed unsafe due to disasters or instability. Advocates argue that many of those affected have lived in the U.S. for decades, raising families and contributing to communities. Critics say the administration ended protections without a fair review of ongoing crises, including political unrest in Honduras and recent storms in Nicaragua.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the decision, saying TPS was never intended as a permanent solution. The administration has already terminated protections for hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Cameroon.
The plaintiffs, led by the National TPS Alliance, contend the policy is unlawful and driven by political motives. The case will continue in the courts, with the next hearing scheduled for November 18, and could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.