Appeals

Feb. 10 (UPI) — A federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration’s effort to end deportation protections for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, a decision that could lead to the removal of tens of thousands of people living in the United States, some of whom have called the country home for up to two decades.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a stay pending appeal on Monday, granting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s emergency request to lift a lower court’s order blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for nationals of those three countries.

“A win for the rule of law and vindication for the U.S. Constitution,” Noem said in a social media statement following the ruling on Monday. “TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades.

“Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation.”

The ruling comes in a protracted case pitting the Trump administration against immigration advocates, who filed the class action lawsuit in July against the federal government’s effort to end TPS for the three countries.

Jhony Silva, a Honduran TPS holder, nursing assistant, father and a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement that he is upset with the ruling but will not stop “fighting for justice.”

“I cannot bear the thought of being separated from my family. I have lived in this country since I was a toddler and I belong here,” he said. “My child does, too.”

Established by Congress in 1990, TPS is a mechanism to shield migrants in the United States from being deported to countries experiencing war, conflict or famine, ultimately preventing Washington from deporting people into a harmful environment.

Honduras and Nicaragua were granted TPS designations in January 1999, a year after the countries were devastated by Hurricane Mitch. Nepal was granted TPS in 2015, after it was hit by a destructive earthquake.

An estimated 60,000 people from the three countries currently in the United States are protected from being deported to those three countries.

Ending TPS designations has been a prong of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and effort to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

In canceling TPS protections for Nepal in June and Honduras and Nicaragua in July, Trump administration officials argued that the designation was only meant to be temporary and that conditions in the three nations have improved significantly enough that they are no longer warranted.

On July 7, the National TPS Alliance filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, arguing the terminations were unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious and conducted without following the necessary review process.

The National TPS Alliance argued the Trump administration’s decision to rescind TPS for the three countries was not based on a review of the conditions on the ground but on a predetermined political decision to dismantle the program, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Within that month, a district judge granted the immigration advocates a postponement of the termination, followed by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals approving the Trump administration’s request for a stay pending appeal in mid-August.

In October, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. On Dec. 31, a district judge granted the immigration advocates partial summary judgment on two of their three claims, staying the termination of the TPS designations — prompting the Trump administration to file for another emergency request with the appeals court.

In its six-page ruling, the appeals court said Monday that the federal government was likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal by either showing that the district court lacked jurisdiction to impose the stay or by prevailing on the argument that the federal government was not in violation of the APA.

“TPS holders deserve better than this,” Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said in a statement.

“Today’s decision allows mothers, fathers, students and workers who have lived lawfully in this country for decades to be stripped of status without even acknowledging the devastation caused to them and their families or the contributions they have made to their communities.”

President Trump’s administration can continue to detain immigrants without bond, marking a major legal victory for the federal immigration agenda and countering a slew of recent lower court decisions across the country that argued the practice is illegal.

A panel of judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday evening that the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country is consistent with the Constitution and federal immigration law.

Specifically, Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones wrote in the 2-1 majority opinion that the government correctly interpreted the Immigration and Nationality Act by asserting that “unadmitted aliens apprehended anywhere in the United States are ineligible for release on bond, regardless of how long they have resided inside the United States.”

Under past administrations, most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border had an opportunity to request a bond hearing while their cases wound through immigration court. Historically, bond was often granted to those without criminal convictions who were not flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to recent border crossers.

“That prior Administrations decided to use less than their full enforcement authority under” the law “does not mean they lacked the authority to do more,” Jones wrote.

The plaintiffs in the two separate cases filed last year against the Trump administration were both Mexican nationals who had lived in the United States for more than 10 years and weren’t flight risks, their attorneys argued. Neither man had a criminal record, and both were jailed for months last year before a lower Texas court granted them bond in October.

The Trump White House reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention in July, reversing almost 30 years of precedent under both Democrat and Republican administrations.

Friday’s ruling also bucks a November district court decision in California, which granted detained immigrants with no criminal history the opportunity to request a bond hearing and had implications for noncitizens held in detention nationwide.

Circuit Judge Dana M. Douglas wrote the lone dissent in Friday’s decision.

The elected members of Congress who passed the Immigration and Nationality Act “would be surprised to learn it had also required the detention without bond of two million people,” Douglas wrote, adding that many of the people detained are “the spouses, mothers, fathers, and grandparents of American citizens.”

She went on to argue that the federal government was overriding the lawmaking process with the Department of Homeland Security’s new immigration detention policy that denies detained immigrants bond.

“Because I would reject the government’s invitation to rubber stamp its proposed legislation by executive fiat, I dissent,” Douglas wrote.

Douglas’ opinion echoed widespread tensions between the Trump administration and federal judges around the country, who have increasingly accused the administration of flouting court orders.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi celebrated the decision as “a significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn.”

“We will continue vindicating President Trump’s law and order agenda in courtrooms across the country,” Bondi wrote on the social media platform X.

Riddle writes for the Associated Press.

Jan. 29 (UPI) — An appeals court ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unlawfully ended immigration protections for Haiti and Venezuela.

The three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Noem, who ended the Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans on Jan. 29, 2025. She ended TPS protection for Haitians on June 28.

The opinion, written late Wednesday by Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences for the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.”

She said the move has hurt immigrants who came here to work.

“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” Wardlaw wrote.

“The Secretary’s actions have left hundreds of thousands of people in a constant state of fear that they will be deported, detained, separated from their families, and returned to a country in which they were subjected to violence or any other number of harms,” she said.

The concurring opinion by Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. noted that Noem and President Donald Trump had made racist remarks about the people of Venezuela and Haiti, meaning that the decision to end TPS was “preordained” and not based on need.

“The record is replete with public statements by Secretary Noem and President Donald Trump that evince a hostility toward, and desire to rid the country of, TPS holders who are Venezuelan and Haitian,” Mendoza wrote. “And these were not generalized statements about immigration policy toward Venezuela and Haiti or national security concerns to which the Executive is owed deference. Instead, these statements were overtly founded on racist stereotyping based on country of origin.”

The concurring opinion cites Noem calling Venezuelans “dirtbags” and “criminals,” and Trump saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of Americans.

The ruling, though, won’t change the TPS removal for Venezuelans. The Supreme Court ruled in another case in October to allow Noem to end the TPS while the court battles continue.

TPS began as part of the Immigration Act of 1990. It allows the Department of Homeland Security secretary to grant legal status to those fleeing fighting, environmental disaster or “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return. TPS can last six, 12 or 18 months, and if conditions stay dangerous, they can be extended. It allows TPS holders to work, but there is no path to citizenship.

Haiti was given TPS in 2010 after a magnitude 7 earthquake that killed about 160,000 people. It left more than 1 million without homes.