In a move that could put thousands of Nepali immigrants in the United States at risk of deportation, a US appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to move forward with ending Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Nepali, Honduran, and Nicaraguan nationals.

At least 7,000 Nepali nationals living and staying in the US under TPS will face deportation soon if the Trump administration follows the court’s ruling.

According to the National TPS Alliance, an estimated 60,000 TPS holders from these countries have lived lawfully in the US for 26 years (in the case of Hondurans and Nicaraguans) and 10 years (in the case of Nepalis), relying on TPS. However, the Department of Homeland Security has ordered that Honduran and Nicaraguan TPS holders be stripped of their legal status and work authorisation in 60 days; Nepali TPS holders had already been scheduled to lose their status by August 5, last year.

The TPS designation for Nepal expired on June 24, 2025. Through a Federal Register notice on June 6, 2025, the secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, terminated the next extension of TPS for Nepal, according to the Immigrant Law Centre.

The notice of termination dated June 6, 2025, provided a 60–day transition period, with the termination effective on August 5, 2025. After that date, Nepali nationals (and people having no nationality who habitually resided in Nepal) with TPS would no longer have that protection, said the centre.

As the Trump administration is tightening one after another visa and immigration rules and imposing several entry restrictions, this new court ruling puts over 7,000 Nepalis at risk of deportation.

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the order staying (pausing) a lower court’s injunction from December 31, 2025 that had prevented the US government from terminating TPS for Nepali, Honduran, and Nicaraguan nationals.

In June last year, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service stated that after reviewing country conditions and consulting relevant US government agencies, Secretary Noem determined that Nepal no longer met the conditions for its designation for TPS.

Following this decision, Nepal’s TPS designation and related benefits terminated on August 5, 2025.

However, on December 31, 2025, a judge in the US Northern District of California vacated Noem’s TPS termination decision. The US Department of Homeland Security strongly disagreed and, together with the Department of Justice, appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that failing to allow the termination would cause “irreparable harm.”

The Ninth Circuit court issued a stay, blocking the lower court ruling and allowing the government to proceed with TPS termination.

According to the six-page verdict, the court said there is a reasonable likelihood that the government can justify its actions based on the administrative record, and show that the termination was not unlawful or outside the lower court’s jurisdiction. The panel noted that a failure to consider recent country conditions does not necessarily amount to an unexplained change in policy, meaning the government’s reasoning might hold up on appeal.

The TPS Alliance, in a statement, said that the ruling, which follows an emergency request from the Trump administration, leaves thousands of immigrants who have lived in the US for more than two decades at risk of detention and deportation.

“Today’s decision places at immediate risk of deportation thousands of people who have been doing everything they have been asked to do,” said Jose Plama, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance.

“With this decision, the government and the legal system are turning their backs on people who have called the US home for decades. These are people whom the country recognised as heroes during the Covid pandemic—health care, child care, and other front-line providers. Congress must now act,” Plama reacted to the court’s ruling.

After the court’s ruling, the Secretary Noem on X called it “a win for the rule of law and vindication for the US Constitution.”

“Under the previous administration, temporary protected status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation. 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 is intended to be a temporary designation.”

The court said the government could likely show that its actions were supported by the administrative record, that it consulted relevant agencies, and that it gave legitimate reasons for ending TPS based on conditions in the affected countries. The panel also held that failing to consider recent developments in the country does not, by itself, constitute an unlawful or unexplained policy change. As a result, TPS termination can proceed for now, while the legal challenge continues, as per the court’s ruling.

According to Courthouse News Service, TPS protects individuals from certain countries experiencing violence or economic duress.

“While those with TPS status can’t be deported and can work legally in the US, they do not have a path to US citizenship. The National TPS Alliance and individual TPS holders from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal sued last summer after Noem ordered the termination of protected status for the three countries, claiming her actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act and were motivated by racial animus.”

TPS had allowed thousands of Nepalis to legally reside and work in the United States following the 2015 earthquakes. Nepal was first granted the status on June 24, 2015, after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the country, ravaging mainly hill districts. Nearly 9,000 people were killed in the earthquake.

Since late 2017, the Trump administration has terminated the temporary status for about 400,000 nationals from Nepal and five other countries—Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, Honduras and El Salvador, many of whom have lived in the US for over two decades.

According to the Congressional Research Service, nearly 15,000 Nepali citizens with clean legal records in the United States were granted TPS on June 24, 2015, two months after the earthquake.