SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal court of appeals on Wednesday suspended an order from a lower court that, for now, was on the side of the Trump administration and maintained temporary protections for 60,000 immigrants from Central America and Nepal.
This means that the Republican administration can move towards eliminating an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal, where the temporary protected status designation expired on August 5th.
San Francisco’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals appealed an emergency stay as immigration rights advocates alleged that the administration had illegally acted to end temporary protected status designations for people in Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.
“A district court order that grants plaintiffs’ plaintiffs’ motions that entered the country on July 31, 2025, further orders are pending for this court,” wrote Democrat Bill Clinton and Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump appointees.
Temporary protected status is a designation that may be granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security, which prevents immigrants from being deported and allows them to work. The Trump administration is actively seeking Remove protectiontherefore, more people are eligible for removal. It’s part of Wideer efforts by the government Perform a massive deportation of immigrants.
Secretary Christy Noem can extend his temporary protected status to U.S. immigrants if they are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disasters, political instability, or other dangerous conditions.
Immigration rights advocates say Nepal TPS holders have lived in the US for more than a decade, while Honduras and Nicaraguan people lived in the US for 26 years after Hurricane Mitch destroyed both countries in 1998.
“The Trump administration systematically dedocumentes immigrants who have lived legally in the country for decades, raising children, starting businesses and serving the community of American citizens,” said Jessica Bansal, a lawyer for workers’ organizations across the country.
Noem has finished the program After decision The terms no longer justified protection.
In a sharply written order of July 31, San Francisco US District Judge Trina L. Thompson continued to maintain protections while the case progressed. The next hearing will be on November 18th.
She said the administration ended migrant status protections without an “objective review of the country’s circumstances,” including political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua.
In response, Tricia McLaughlin, secretary of DHS, said, “TPS was not intended to be a de facto an asylum system, but that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”
The Trump administration has already ended its TPS designation of approximately 350,000 Venezuelans500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people in Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending cases in federal court.
The plaintiff’s lawyers argued that Noem’s decision was illegal because it was pre-determined by President Donald Trump’s campaign promises and motivated by racial animus.
However, U.S. Associate Attorney General Drew Ensign said at a hearing Tuesday that the government is suffering from continuing irreparable harm because it is “guaranteed not to implement a guaranteed program.”
In May, the US Supreme Court entered the Trump administration End of Venezuelan TPS designation. Justice provided no basis, but this was common in emergency appeals and did not control the underlying claim.
