9th Circuit stays TPS termination for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal

A federal appeals court in San Francisco granted an emergency stay Wednesday that allows the Trump administration to proceed toward ending Temporary Protected Status for about 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, at least for now. The decision pauses a lower-court order that had kept TPS protections in place while a broader legal fight over the termination moves forward on appeal. The stay means the protections remain in limbo as the court reviews the administration’s plan to wind down the program, with further proceedings set to resume later in the year.

Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to allow people from countries affected by conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions to remain in the United States and to work legally. The Trump administration has repeatedly moved to end TPS designations, arguing that many conditions have improved and that the program has stretched beyond its intended use. In this case, officials maintain that ending TPS is lawful and consistent with DHS’s broader immigration priorities, while opponents contend the move was undermined by improper...