A federal appeals court has granted the Trump administration’s request to pause an order from a federal judge who had stopped the termination of deportation protections and work authorizations for immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal.

Handing the Trump administration a win in its goal to revamp the Temporary Protected Status program, the three-judge panel of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco offered no opinion for its unanimous decision on Wednesday. Approximately 61,000 people — 51,000 from Honduras, 7,200 from Nepal,and 2,900 from Nicaragua — could be affected by the decision.

The decision means TPS holders from Nepal are stripped of their legal status and work authorization, which expired on Aug. 5. TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua is set to expire on September 6. A federal judge had postponed the termination till a planned hearing on Nov. 18.

“This is yet another huge legal victory for the Trump Administration, the rule of law, and the safety of the American public. Temporary Protected Status was always meant to be just that: Temporary,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

The ruling allows the administration to enforce the termination, which could upend the lives of Nicaraguans living in the United States, 40% of whom call Florida home.

In August, U.S. District Judge Trini L. Thompson had ruled to postpone the administration’s termination of TPS in a lawsuit filed by the National TPS Alliance and several TPS holders. The groups argued the administration had failed to account for the current real-life conditions in the three countries, and that the termination was not based on proper legal considerations.

Thompson agreed with the TPS holders. In her August ruling, she said the administration had shown a history of racial animus in its immigration policies, including terminating TPS status for countries like Haiti, Venezuela and Afghanistan.

Thompson’s ruling mentioned that during the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump had referred to immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country” and the Department of Homeland Security had referred to undocumented immigrants as “criminals.”

“Indeed, code words may demonstrate discriminatory intent,” Thompson said. “Color is neither a poison nor a crime.”

DHS issued a statement calling Thompson, who was appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, a “woke judge” and compared her opinion on the case to a “‘New York Times opinion piece.” The federal agency has maintained in its TPS terminations for multiple countries that having immigrants from those countries in the United States is a national security concern. However, it has not provided evidence in any of the cases on how people who have been living in the U.S. for more than two decades pose a national security risk.

The administration terminated the Status for Nepal in June and for Honduras and Nicaragua in July. The designation was first provided to Honduras and Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch caused extensive damage and displacement in both countries in 1999. The designation has been continually extended over the years and was eventually challenged by the first Trump administration. At the time, the administration chose not to enforce a termination. Nepal received TPS status after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015.

“This administration’s attack on TPS is part of a concerted campaign to deprive noncitizens of any legal status,” said Emi MacLean, attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. “Today’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.”

TPS is conferred on foreign nationals who because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary conditions cannot safely return to their home country. TPS allows recipients to live and work in the U.S. as long as their home country is designated for TPS.

On Wednesday, lawyers representing Haitian TPS holders in a separate lawsuit filed a motion challenging the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the benefit for as many as 350,000 Haitians. The complaint was initially filed on July 30, 2025, in federal court in New York.

The Haitian TPS holders are asking the court to stay the termination of their status pending a final resolution on the merits of the case, given the imminent threat to their lives should they be forced to return to Haiti.

“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die. Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death,” the lawyers for the Haitians said in a motion. “Loss of TPS will expose them to immediate deportation to a lawless country where they will be at constant risk of rape, kidnapping, and murder while lacking access to sufficient food, housing and medical care.”

Haiti has has TPS designation since a massive earthquake killed hundreds of thousands in 2010, and it has been repeatedly extended after repeated crises in the Caribbean nation.

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