A U.S. appeals court has handed the Trump administration a key legal win, allowing it—at least for now—to move ahead with ending deportation protections for tens of thousands of migrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.
On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused a lower court order that had blocked the rollback of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly 89,000 people. The decision keeps the administration’s policy in force while the broader appeal plays out.
In its ruling, the California-based court signaled that the government may be able to justify the move, noting it could likely demonstrate “legitimate” reasons for ending the protections. The panel also suggested that decisions around TPS terminations might fall outside the scope of judicial review altogether.
Temporary Protected Status allows migrants already in the United States to remain and work legally when their home countries are struck by war, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises. The designation is meant to be short-term, but many recipients have lived in the U.S. for years under repeated extensions.
The administration has argued that conditions in Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua no longer warrant special protection. In a public statement following the ruling, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said TPS was never intended to function as a long-term immigration solution and maintained that circumstances in the three countries have improved enough to justify ending the program.
The appeals court decision reverses, for now, a December ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco, who had blocked the terminations. That judge had found the government failed to properly weigh on-the-ground conditions in the affected countries and raised concerns that the policy shift may have been influenced by hostility toward immigrants.
The appeals panel—made up of judges appointed by presidents from both major parties—took a different view, concluding the administration had likely met its legal obligations in reviewing country conditions.
Groups representing TPS holders did not immediately respond to the ruling.
The case remains under appeal, but the court’s intervention gives the administration room to continue its broader push to narrow immigration protections while the legal battle continues.
