A federal judge in California on Thursday ruled in favour of extending temporary protected status for roughly 60,000 migrants from Central America and Asia, including nationals from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
This decision temporarily halts moves by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who previously declared that conditions in these countries had improved enough to end the humanitarian protections, which shield beneficiaries from deportation and permit them to legally work in the United States.
The TPS designation for around 7,000 Nepalese was due to lapse on August 5, while protections for 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, many of whom have lived and worked in the U.S. for over two decades, were set to expire on September 8.
Noem cited “significant progress” in Honduras and Nicaragua’s recovery from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 as grounds for ending the program.
These moves are consistent with broader efforts by the Trump administration to scale back immigration, targeting not only undocumented individuals but also those with temporary legal status.
The administration has sought to eliminate TPS coverage as part of a larger push to reduce the number of non-citizens residing in the country.
Under the law, the Homeland Security secretary may extend TPS to individuals from countries experiencing extraordinary conditions, such as political upheaval or natural disasters, making return unsafe.
Already, the administration has moved to rescind TPS for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, over 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands of others from Afghanistan, Nepal, and Cameroon. Legal challenges to some of those terminations are ongoing in federal courts.
Attorneys representing the National TPS Alliance argue that Secretary Noem’s actions were not grounded in an impartial review of conditions abroad but were instead driven by United States President, Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric and racial bias.
They emphasized that, in contrast to the usual 12-month departure period, affected individuals in this case were told to leave within 60 days.
“They gave them two months to leave the country. It’s awful,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney for the plaintiffs, during Tuesday’s court session.
The U.S. government contends that Noem possesses exclusive and non-reviewable authority over the TPS program and that her decisions align with broader immigration and foreign policy goals of the administration.
Justice Department lawyer, William Weiland, defended the administration’s stance, stating, “It is not meant to be permanent,” during Tuesday’s hearing. “It is not a pretext to have a different view of a program that provides temporary safe harbor.”
