A United States appeals court has sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to move ahead with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal — at least for now.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued an emergency stay on Wednesday, pausing a lower court order that had temporarily kept protections in place.
Around 7,000 Nepalis face removal after their TPS expired on August 5.
The legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans is set to expire on September 8, making them eligible for deportation.
The brief court ruling did not explain why it considered the matter an “emergency.”
In July, a district judge had ordered the administration to keep TPS active until November, when a full hearing on the merits was scheduled. That judge noted that the sudden termination could cause “irreparable harm” to affected migrants, while also hurting US communities and the economy through the loss of workers.
But the appeals court overrode that pause, giving the administration a green light to press forward.
Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, criticised the ruling, saying the lack of explanation fell “far short of what due process requires.”
TPS grants nationals from countries hit by war, disaster, or instability the right to stay and work legally in the US.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has pushed to wind down TPS protections for multiple groups, including migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti, Venezuela, and Cameroon, despite ongoing crises in those countries.
Immigrant advocates argue the policy is part of a broader campaign to shrink legal pathways and speed up deportations.
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