On August 20, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a district court order that had temporarily postponed Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.
In a sharply written order issued on July 31, 2025, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco kept the protections in place while the case proceeds. Judge Thompson’s order postpones the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (USDHS) termination of TPS for these countries at least until a hearing on the merits on November 18, 2025. The appeals court states that “The district court’s order granting plaintiffs’ motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court.” The appeals court case is National TPS Alliance et al. v. Noem et al., 25-4901 (9th Cir.).
What Does this Mean?
This pause means the present administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 migrants from Nepal whose temporary protected status designations expired on August 5, 2025. Likewise, the TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire on September 8, 2025.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has the authority to extend TPS status to immigrants in the U.S. if conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions. Secretary Noem ended the programs after determining that conditions no longer warranted protection.
Secretary Noem said the administration ended the migrant status protections without an “objective review of the country conditions,” such as political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua.
TPS holders from Nepal have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, while people from Honduras and Nicaragua have lived in the country for 26 years, after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 devastated both countries.
The current administration has already terminated TPS designations for about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.
Canceling TPS will create significant problems for U.S. employers, particularly for those with a workforce that relies on this program. The problems are varied and significant: Workforce disruptions and labor shortages; operational impacts; compliance challenges and legal risks; form I-9 reverification; potential fines and penalties; balancing obligations; financial and administrative burdens; increased turnover costs; uncertainty and stress for employees; potential economic impact for employers, employees, and local economies; and much more.