A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Attorney General Pam Bondi described the ruling as a “crucial legal win” that helps advance President Trump’s continued deportation efforts. She noted that the court found the government is likely to prevail in its argument that ending TPS for these nations is both sound and lawful.
Last year, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sought to terminate TPS protections for the three countries, arguing that under current law, the U.S. must verify whether the original reasons for their protection still apply.
Nepal was designated for TPS in 2015 following a massive earthquake, while Honduras and Nicaragua received protections in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch.
Noem’s chief spokeswoman, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, previously stated that TPS protections were always intended to be temporary. DHS Secretary Noem has also claimed: “TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades. Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation.”
The three-judge panel — composed of U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Hawkins (a Bill Clinton appointee), U.S. Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan (a George W. Bush appointee), and U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Miller (a Donald Trump appointee) — noted that their decision was influenced by recent Supreme Court rulings involving Venezuela. However, they acknowledged the justices did not provide specific reasoning for their decision to stay orders blocking Noem from terminating TPS for Venezuelan migrants.
The panel stated: “We therefore conclude that the equitable factors favor a stay.” They emphasized that while the stay applications involved similar assertions of harm, their ruling does not extend to the legal issues in this case.
Temporary Protected Status protects individuals from certain countries due to violence or economic instability. Those with TPS status can work legally in the U.S. but do not have a path to citizenship. Last summer, the National TPS Alliance and individual TPS holders from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Nepal sued after Noem ordered the termination of protected status for these nations, claiming her actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act and were motivated by racial animus.