A federal appeals court gave Trump administration officials the green light to end deportation protections for tens of thousands of migrants from Central America and Asia.
In a ruling handed down late Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals permitted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 60,000 Honduran, Nicaraguan and Nepali nationals as a court challenge against the directive continues to play out. The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel overruled an order handed down weeks earlier by a Biden-appointed judge.
The Trump administration, which has aggressively sought to end TPS protections for other foreign nationals living in the country, hailed the decision as a “major legal victory.”
“This is yet another huge legal victory for the Trump Administration, the rule of law, safety of the American public,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a public statement. “Temporary Protected Status was always meant to be just that: Temporary.”
“TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades while allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigners into the country without proper vetting,” McLaughlin continued. “This unanimous decision will help restore integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”
The appeals court victory means the Trump administration can move forward with removing roughly 7,000 Nepalis whose TPS designations expired on Aug. 5, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Some 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans will be eligible for removal once their TPS designations end on Sept. 8.
A federal authority first established in the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS grants sweeping deportation protections and work eligibility to foreign nationals living in the U.S., including illegal migrants, whose home countries are experiencing any number of conflicts or devastating natural disasters, making it potentially unsafe for them to return, as stipulated by USCIS.
A longtime critique of this designation is that it’s been “temporary” in name only, with TPS being renewed for foreign national groups repeatedly over the decades. Hondurans and Nicaraguans have enjoyed TPS since 1999, after Hurricane Mitch caused major destruction to the region. Nepal, a landlocked country nestled in the Himalayan Mountains, was added to the TPS list following an earthquake in 2015.
Under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Trump administration has already nixed TPS for roughly half a million Haitians, 350,000 Venezuelans and over 160,000 Ukrainians and other foreign nationals, attracting a slate of lawsuits.
In late July, Judge Trina Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California — who was appointed to the bench by the Biden administration in 2022 — blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua. In her ruling, the Biden-appointed judge blatantly accused the Trump White House of racism.
“The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek,” Thompson said at the time. “Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees.”
The appeals court ruling on Wednesday puts Thompson’s order on hold for the time being. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is the National TPS Alliance.
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