Appeals court rules Trump can terminate deportation protections for migrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua

In a major legal victory for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can terminate deportation protections for nearly 90,000 migrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua in the US. 

The three-judge panel on the 9th US Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that a lower court erred in blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from the three nations, overturning a December order from District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco. 

“The government is likely to prevail in its argument that the Secretary’s decision-making process in terminating TPS for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal was not arbitrary and capricious,” the appellate court determined. 

“Specifically, the government can likely show that the administrative record adequately supports the Secretary’s action, that the TPS statute does not require the Secretary to consider intervening country conditions arising after the events that led to the initial TPS designation, and that the Secretary’s decision not to consider intervening conditions does not amount to an unexplained change in policy,” the ruling continued. 

Since the 1990s, the TPS program has granted humanitarian relief to migrants from disaster-plagued and war-ravaged regions.

The federal program allows migrants to enjoy temporary legal status in the US and obtain work permits. 

Hondurans and Nicaraguans had been given the legal status to emigrate and get work permits as a federal response to humanitarian issues following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when the storm hit both countries, killing almost 7,300 people.

Nepal joined the TPS program in June 2015 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country. 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem celebrated the appeals court ruling, calling it “a win for the rule of law and vindication for the US Constitution.”

“Under the previous administration, Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation,” Noem wrote on X. “TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades.

“Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation.”