Additional Coverage:
- Judge extends temporary protected status for 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal (cnn.com)
Federal Judge Extends Protections for 60,000 Central American and Asian Immigrants
A California federal judge has granted a reprieve for approximately 60,000 immigrants from Central America and Asia, temporarily extending their protected status in the United States. The ruling affects individuals from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had previously moved to end the temporary protected status (TPS) designations, asserting that conditions in these countries no longer justified the protections. TPS allows recipients to legally live and work in the US, shielding them from deportation.
The judge’s decision delays the expiration of TPS for roughly 7,000 Nepalese, whose protections were set to end on August 5th. It also impacts 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, whose TPS designations, granted over 25 years ago in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, were slated to expire on September 8th. Secretary Noem had argued that both Honduras and Nicaragua had recovered sufficiently from the hurricane.
This legal battle unfolds amidst the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back TPS and increase deportations. The administration has already terminated TPS for hundreds of thousands of individuals from several countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Cameroon, sparking numerous legal challenges.
Lawyers representing the National TPS Alliance contend that Secretary Noem’s decisions were politically motivated, driven by President Trump’s immigration policies rather than objective assessments of conditions in the affected countries. They also criticized the short timeframe given to TPS recipients to leave the country, arguing that the typical one-year period was drastically reduced in these cases.
The government maintains that Secretary Noem has full authority over the TPS program and that her decisions align with the administration’s immigration and foreign policy objectives. Government attorneys emphasized the temporary nature of TPS, asserting that it was never intended to provide permanent residency.