Trump Admin Can End Protected Status for Nationals of 3 Countries: Appeals Court

The decision by a three-judge panel affects immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua living in the United States under temporary protected status.

Illegal immigrants from Nicaragua, Ecuador and other nationalities at a door on the border wall waiting to be picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 4, 2023. Paul Ratje/Reuters

The Trump administration can move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday.

It was a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel, ruling to temporarily lift a previous federal judge’s ruling that blocked the termination of the status for immigrants of the three countries and accused the federal government of possibly being racially motivated in its actions.

There are nearly 89,000 immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua who have been granted temporary status to live in the United States.

“TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Feb. 9 post on X.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in California blocked Noem’s attempt to end TPS for nationals of the three countries in December, citing comments about immigrants from the Homeland Security secretary and President Donald Trump as her reasoning.

The judge also said the Trump administration did not consider the conditions of the nations that might prevent immigrants from returning.

The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in California on Monday paused Thompson’s ruling for the duration of the appeal, stating the federal government could likely prove there are legitimate reasons to terminate Nepali, Honduran, and Nicaraguan protection.

“A win for the rule of law and vindication for the U.S. Constitution. Under the previous administration, Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation,” Noem said.

In contrast to the previous federal judge ruling to block the terminations, the appeals court found the federal government could likely prove that Noem did consider the conditions of Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua before ending the roughly 89,000 immigrants’ protected status.

The TPS statute allows the secretary of Homeland Security to declare a foreign state for protected status when “nationals of that state cannot return there safely due to armed conflict, natural disaster, or other ‘extraordinary and temporary conditions,’” the appeals court wrote Monday.

TPS holders are eligible for work and protection from deportation while their home country remains designated. The Homeland Security secretary can periodically review conditions in a foreign nation and decide whether a protected status allowing stay in the United States is still warranted for its citizens. If conditions aren’t met, Noem has the authority to terminate the TPS by giving notice in the Federal Register, a daily journal for the U.S. government.

“Given the improved situation in each of these countries [Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua], we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation,” Noem said on X.

Nepal came under TPS designation after a devastating 2015 earthquake, killing nearly 9,000 people across multiple countries, including Nepal.

Honduras and Nicaragua received their designation after Hurricane Mitch in 1999, resulting in at least 10,000 deaths in Central America.

The appeals court’s decision is a big win for the Trump administration as it continues immigration law enforcement in cities across America.

The federal government has also tried to end TPS for an estimated 300,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States. A federal judge ruled last week that the termination for nationals of the Caribbean nation violated federal law.

The Trump administration is appealing the case.

Reuters contributed to this report.