A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump administration to proceed with plans to end temporary immigration protections for about 89,000 aliens from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua.
On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifted a lower court’s order blocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from moving to end Temporary Protected Status for natives of the three countries.
Noem hailed the appeals court’s decision as “a win for the rule of law and vindication for the U.S. Constitution.”
“TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades,” Noem wrote on X.
“Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation.”
Temporary Protected Status provides protection against deportation and allows foreign nationals to live and work in the U.S. for a period. It is usually granted to citizens of nations experiencing war or recovering from a major natural disaster.
Last year, Noem announced that the United States would end the status for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua after determining that the three nations “no longer met the conditions for its designation,” according to DHS.
The move was challenged in court, and U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson blocked Noem in December from ending the program for the three countries.
Honduras and Nicaragua were granted TPS in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch, and Nepal received the immigration protection in 2015 following a large earthquake.
The Biden administration cited “numerous environmental, political, and social crises” in Honduras when it extended TPS for the country in 2023. In its TPS extension for Nepal that year, it cited “internal displacement, problems with reconstruction fund distribution, and ongoing environmental disasters” that had persisted since a devastating 2015 earthquake.
The Ninth Circuit Court explains in its order that it determines whether to grant a stay pending appeal if the party asking for a stay has shown a strong likelihood “to succeed on the merits” of the appeal.
The government, in this case, “is likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal,” the court document reads.
The schedule for further proceedings will be determined in the coming days.
