On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, a federal appeals court delivered a seismic ruling in the nation’s ongoing immigration debate, granting the Trump administration the authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal. The decision, handed down by a three-judge panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, abruptly halted a lower court’s order that had shielded these migrants from deportation and allowed them to continue working legally in the United States.
The ruling, which did not elaborate on its reasoning, was issued by Circuit Judges Michael Hawkins, Consuelo Callahan, and Eric Miller—each appointed by a different president, reflecting a rare bipartisan consensus. According to CBS News and the Missouri Independent, the panel’s brief statement simply read, “The government’s motion for a stay pending appeal … is granted,” leaving the fate of thousands hanging in the balance.
For many, the news was devastating. “I am heartbroken by the court’s decision,” said Sandhya Lama, a TPS holder from Nepal and plaintiff in the case, as quoted by the Missouri Independent. “I’ve lived in the U.S. for years, and my kids are U.S. citizens and have never even been to Nepal. This ruling leaves us and thousands of other TPS families in fear and uncertainty.”
The roots of TPS for these communities run deep. Hondurans and Nicaraguans were granted protected status in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, a catastrophic storm that killed nearly 7,300 people and left both countries in ruins. Nepal joined the program in 2015 following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that displaced millions. For many TPS holders, the United States has been home for decades, their lives and families firmly established here.
Yet, as The Guardian and Associated Press reported, the Trump administration has made clear its intention to roll back TPS protections. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has spearheaded these efforts, defended the move by stating, “Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary.” She argued that the countries in question have sufficiently recovered from the disasters that originally justified their inclusion in the program. Earlier this year, Noem even offered a plane ticket and a $1,000 “exit bonus” to migrants willing to self-deport immediately.
For Nepalese migrants, the expiration date arrived swiftly: their protections ended on August 5, 2025. Honduran and Nicaraguan TPS holders now face a looming deadline of September 8, after which they will become eligible for removal. According to Department of Homeland Security statistics cited by CBS News, the affected population includes approximately 51,000 Hondurans, 7,200 Nepalis, and 2,900 Nicaraguans—most without a pathway to permanent residency.
The legal battle has been fierce. Just weeks before the appeals court’s intervention, San Francisco-based District Judge Trina Thompson, an appointee of President Joe Biden, had issued a 37-page ruling pausing the elimination of TPS until November 18, 2025. Thompson’s opinion was unflinching, accusing Secretary Noem of being “motivated by racial animus.” She wrote, “The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek. Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees.”
Judge Thompson also criticized the administration for failing to conduct an “objective review of the country conditions,” highlighting ongoing political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua. Despite these concerns, the appellate court’s ruling means that the protections will end—at least for now—pending further legal proceedings.
Immigrant rights advocates and organizations have reacted with alarm. The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance are among the groups that have joined the lawsuit challenging the administration’s actions. Emi MacLean, an attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, stated, “This administration’s attack on TPS is part of a concerted campaign to deprive noncitizens of any legal status. (Wednesday’s) ruling is a devastating setback, but it is not the end of this fight. Humanitarian protection–TPS–means something and cannot be decimated so easily.”
On the other side, the Department of Homeland Security has welcomed the court’s decision. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin asserted, “TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades while allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigners into the country without proper vetting. This unanimous decision will help restore integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”
The debate over TPS is not limited to these three countries. The Trump administration has already terminated protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Cameroon. As The Guardian and Associated Press detailed, TPS for Haitians—initially granted after the 2010 earthquake—will end for an estimated 340,000 people after September 2, 2025, despite ongoing violence and instability in Port-au-Prince. The administration has also ended TPS for over 8,000 Afghans and 5,000 Cameroonians, raising concerns from human rights groups about the dangers they face upon return.
Conditions in the countries losing TPS remain dire. The United Nations has described Nicaragua as an “authoritarian state” where opposition voices are silenced, while Honduras continues to grapple with the highest rate of femicides in Latin America and widespread humanitarian need. Nepal, despite improvements in disaster preparedness, has faced recent violent clashes and ongoing political instability.
For many TPS holders, the uncertainty is overwhelming. They have built lives, businesses, and families in the United States—contributing an estimated $21 billion annually to the U.S. economy and paying $5.2 billion in taxes, according to advocacy group Fwd.us. Yet, as Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, put it, “The termination of TPS is a complete unwillingness to acknowledge the humanity of these immigrants, whom many of them have been in the country for over 15 years. Many of them have children who were born and raised here.”
As the legal fight continues, the next hearing is scheduled for November 18, 2025. Until then, tens of thousands of families face an uncertain future—caught between the shifting tides of U.S. policy and the enduring hope for a place to call home.
