A United States appeals court allowed the Department of Homeland Security to end the protection against deportation granted by TPS to 89,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal. The decision reverses the blocking measure by a federal court in San Francisco, which had suspended the cancellation in December 2025. It also invalidates the work permits and leaves those affected susceptible to deportations while the appeal process progresses.

First modification: 02/10/2026 - 19:33

Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Nepalis in the United States risk facing the same fate as Venezuelans, Cameroonians, Somalis and Afghans before them: being exposed to deportation while an appeal trial continues over the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that protected them.

On February 9, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the decision of a federal court in San Francisco, which had paused the decision of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the TPS that protected 89,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

TPS is a provisional measure of a humanitarian nature that is issued to protect from expulsion nationals of countries that have gone through catastrophic circumstances such as wars or natural disasters, with the understanding that it is not safe to return to their places of origin.

It does not open the way to permanent residence, as is the case in the case of asylum, but it grants permission to work legally in the United States during the duration of TPS, which used to be automatically renewed every six, 12 or 18 months, until the second government of Donald Trump began to terminate its validity.

With this measure, the DHS can, on the one hand, cancel work permits, with which those affected will lose their jobs, and on the other, proceed with deportation, while the trial in the appeals court progresses.

To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies.

An extension on your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site.

Federal Judge Trina Thompson of San Francisco had put on hold the decision to revoke the protected status for these migrants, arguing that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, had not adequately considered the situation of the countries in question before ruling on the termination of TPS.

Thompson also disputed that Noem had dictated the measure driven by racial animosity, citing her constant references to migrants from certain backgrounds as criminals.

"These statements reflect a stereotype of immigrants protected under the TPS program as criminal invaders and perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population," the judge analyzed in her brief.

However, the three judges of the Court of Appeals voted unanimously to allow Noem to terminate TPS, considering that “the Government can probably demonstrate that the administrative record adequately supports the secretary's (Noem) action.”

The panel, whose members were appointed one by Trump, another by George W. Bush and another by Bill Clinton, considered that the DHS was not required to consider “the conditions of the intervening country that arise after the events that led to the initial designation of TPS.”

In addition, he pointed out that his resolution took into account previous decisions of the Supreme Court, which suspended the orders of lower courts that paused the cancellation of TPS.

This was the case of the protected status for Venezuelans, which protected some 600,000 people of this nationality, in which it was precisely the highest judicial instance that allowed the termination while the trial progressed in an appeals court.

To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies.

Secretary Noem celebrated the decision on her social media: "TPS was never designed to be permanent, but previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades. Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are rightly concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation."

Read alsoAmerican judge prevents revoking the protection system for Haitian migrants

An increasingly long list

Since returning to the White House, Trump has ordered the termination of TPS that protected people of 13 nationalities.

Of them, four have already come into effect: those involving Venezuelans, Afghans, Cameroonians and Somalis, and on February 13 the Ethiopian one will also be added. Now the cancellation is also effective for Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Nepalis.

A federal judge in Washington on February 2 blocked the revocation of the status that protects 350,000 Haitians, arguing that the allegation of the law firm that represented the plaintiffs that Secretary Noem acted motivated “by hostility toward non-white immigrants” “seems quite probable.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded that "Haiti's TPS was granted after an earthquake that occurred more than 15 years ago," ignoring that after the 2010 earthquake there was another devastating earthquake in 2021, in addition to tropical storms and a crisis of criminal violence that has displaced almost a million and a half people from gang-controlled sectors.

Court orders pause the termination of TPS for citizens of Myanmar, Syria and South Sudan.

Between March and October of this year, the provisional protections that protect migrants from Yemen, Lebanon, El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine also expire.

Despite the DHS's usual argument that the internal situation in the countries involved has improved enough to make return safe, the United States maintains warnings to its citizens not to travel to 10 of the 13 with TPS revoked.

Read alsoBetween clandestinity and return: 250,000 Venezuelans lose immigration protection in the US.

Citizens under “strict federal audit”

The Honduran Foreign Ministry issued a statement on February 10 in which it regretted “that the US administration remains firm in its decision to cancel the Temporary Protected Status.”

The document recognized that the mandate of the Court of Appeals is "one more procedural instance that has been exhausted," but it cannot yet be considered a "final ruling," since it is a "complex litigation that, we anticipate, could go up to the Supreme Court."

The Government of Nasry Asfura considered in its statement that the citizens covered by the protection (popularly known as Tepesians) have been subjected to sufficient scrutiny during the years of the measure to not be characterized as a danger to the United States.

"Far from being a threat, the Tepesians have lived under strict federal audit, complying with every requirement of the law. Their permanence in the system is irrefutable proof of impeccable legal conduct," the document states.

Asfura met with Trump on February 7 and on that occasion assured that they had addressed the issue of TPS, stating that "we agreed to review all the laws and the work we must do for Honduras."

Nearly 1.8 million Hondurans live in the United States, nearly 72,000 protected by TPS and an undetermined number without legal documentation.

In the case of Nicaraguans, the prospect of return is even more thorny, because the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has left hundreds of nationals whom it considers opponents, and to whom it denies identification documents, stateless.

Also read Trump vs. Somalis, second assault: TPS is revoked and citizens are under threat

With Reuters, EFE and local media

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.