A federal appeals court long viewed as a bastion of liberal jurisprudence handed President Donald Trump a notable legal break Monday night, giving his administration latitude to proceed with dismantling deportation protections tied to a decades-old immigration program.
In an emergency order, the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit paused a lower court decision that had blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua.
The decision allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward while the broader legal challenge continues.
The three-judge panel determined the Trump administration had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on appeal, concluding that Noem’s decision to terminate the protections was likely lawful under federal administrative standards and not arbitrary or capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The order temporarily halts a December ruling from U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson that had invalidated the terminations.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 as a temporary humanitarian measure, allowing foreign nationals from countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to remain and work in the United States without facing removal.
Designations are granted for limited periods—typically six, 12, or 18 months—and must be renewed by the executive branch.
Honduras and Nicaragua were first designated for TPS in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in the late 1990s, while Nepal received protections following a catastrophic earthquake in 2015, per Newsweek.
According to the Congressional Research Service, roughly 60,000 individuals from the three countries are currently covered under the program.
In July, Noem moved to terminate the protections, arguing that the conditions justifying the original designations no longer existed and that TPS had expanded far beyond its intended purpose.
DHS has consistently maintained that the program was never meant to serve as a long-term or permanent immigration benefit.
Attorney General Pam Bondi welcomed the Ninth Circuit’s decision, describing it as a significant development for the administration’s enforcement efforts.
“This is a crucial legal win from Justice Department attorneys that helps clear the way for President Trump’s continued deportations,” Bondi wrote on X. “As the court found, ‘the government is likely to prevail in its argument’ that ending Temporary Protected Status for some immigrants is sound and lawful policy.”
Judge Thompson had previously blocked the terminations in a 52-page opinion, finding that the administration failed to adequately consider current conditions in the affected countries.
Her ruling also suggested the decision may have been influenced by racial animus, citing public statements from Trump administration officials.
Immigration advocacy groups, including the National TPS Alliance, challenged Noem’s action under the Administrative Procedure Act.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded by accusing the judiciary of overstepping its authority, calling Thompson’s ruling “yet another lawless and activist order” that interfered with the executive branch’s responsibility to enforce immigration law.
The Ninth Circuit panel—comprised of Judges Stephen Hawkins, Consuelo Callahan, and Lawrence Miller—reached a different conclusion, citing recent Supreme Court guidance in a comparable case involving Venezuelan migrants.
While Callahan and Miller authored the court’s primary analysis, Hawkins filed a concurring opinion agreeing with the outcome.
“We are not writing on a blank slate,” the judges wrote, according to The New York Times.
They explained that recent Supreme Court stay orders, though unsigned, must still inform lower court decisions when evaluating similar legal disputes.
Noem praised the ruling as a reaffirmation of constitutional limits, stating that TPS “was never designed to be permanent” and had been used by prior administrations as a “de facto amnesty program for decades.”
The decision marks another step in President Trump’s second-term immigration agenda, which has focused on restoring executive authority, accelerating deportations, and narrowing temporary or discretionary immigration programs that have remained in place for years beyond their original scope.
