Appeals Court Ends TPS for Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal
“Today’s ruling is a devastating setback, but it is not the end of this fight,” said an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
HAVANA TIMES – On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, a court of appeals allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal, marking a new victory for the White House in its push to terminate this immigration benefit granted by the executive branch.
A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California lifted a district court order that had allowed immigrants to continue under the protection that shields about 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans from deportation.
The Nepali TPS beneficiaries affected by the ruling have lived legally in the United States for more than 10 years, while the Honduran and Nicaraguan beneficiaries have been protected for over 26 years.
The Department of Homeland Security’s termination orders give immigrants only 60 days before losing their status.
The immigrants under TPS had sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claiming it ended the protection—shielding them from deportation—because of “racial animosity.”
In response, DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin argued earlier in August that the cancellation of the program follows a mandate to “restore the integrity” of the immigration system and return to the original purpose of TPS.
“TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system; however, that is how previous administrations have used it for decades,” the official emphasized.
A “Devastating” Ruling
By contrast, Emi MacLean, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of Northern California, said in a statement that this administration’s attack on TPS is part “of a coordinated campaign” to strip noncitizen immigrants of any legal status.
“Today’s ruling is a devastating setback, but it is not the end of this fight. Humanitarian protection through TPS is important and cannot be dismantled so easily,” the attorney added.
Meanwhile, Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), criticized the panel’s decision and warned that the plaintiffs “deserve better” than what the judges ruled.
The panel’s decision means that Nepali TPS beneficiaries will lose their legal status and work authorization immediately, and Honduran and Nicaraguan beneficiaries will lose protection on September 8, 2025.
Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), which promotes the TPS Alliance, said ending the program will cause enormous hardship for tens of thousands of families, including more than 40,000 U.S.-born children of TPS beneficiaries.
Why Cancel TPS?
The DHS explained that Washington granted TPS to these nationalities after Hurricane Mitch struck in October 1998, the second deadliest hurricane in Atlantic history, leaving more than 11,300 dead in Central America, including nearly 7,000 in Honduras and almost 4,000 in Nicaragua.
But since then, “there have been significant improvements” in the conditions of both countries that “allow for the safe return of their citizens,” DHS argued.
For example, it claimed that Nicaragua “is an emerging leader in tourism, ecotourism, agriculture, and renewable energy,” while “new infrastructure projects are set to transform Honduras and create jobs.”
However, the US State Department concluded in a report published Tuesday, August 12, 2025, that the human rights situation in Nicaragua “worsened” during 2024. This finding contradicts the claim of “significant improvements” in conditions that the Trump administration used to justify ending TPS for Nicaraguans, members of the Nicaraguan diaspora in the US pointed out.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that “by definition, [this status] is temporary. It is not intended to be a permanent pathway to residency or citizenship here in the United States.”
The Trump administration has also ended TPS for about 160,000 Ukrainians, 350,000 Venezuelans, and at least half a million Haitians, among other migrants.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.