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A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration in its bid to end humanitarian protections for tens of thousands of immigrants from Central America and Nepal. The ruling puts on hold a lower court’s order that had temporarily preserved Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for nearly 60,000 migrants.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the administration an emergency stay pending appeal, in a setback for immigrant rights groups who contend the government acted unlawfully in terminating TPS designations for nationals of Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

“The district court’s order granting plaintiffs’ motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court,” the panel of judges wrote.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla…. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. More Associated Press

Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program that allows migrants from countries hit by war, natural disasters or political instability to remain in the United States and obtain work permits. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has moved to curtail the program, arguing that conditions in certain countries no longer justify the designations. The administration has cast TPS restrictions as part of a broader strategy to expand deportations and narrow avenues for immigrants to remain in the country.

Last month, Noem ordered to end TPS for 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, saying their countries had recovered sufficiently from Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Central America in 1998. Those protections are set to expire Sept. 8, after more than two decades of legal work status for many of the migrants. TPS for an estimated 7,000 Nepalis is slated to end Aug. 5.

Immigrant advocacy groups sharply criticized the administration’s actions. U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco had earlier ruled in favor of TPS holders, keeping protections in place while the case proceeds. In her July 31 order, she concluded the administration ended TPS “without an objective review of the country conditions,” citing ongoing political violence in Honduras and recent destructive storms in Nicaragua. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

In response, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the administration’s stance. “TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades,” she said.

The National TPS Alliance, a coalition representing TPS holders, has argued that Secretary Noem’s decisions were unlawful, claiming they were driven by President Donald Trump’s campaign promises and “motivated by racial animus.”

Government attorneys countered that the administration is entitled to set immigration policy. Drew Ensign, a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, told the court Tuesday that the government suffers “irreparable harm” from its “inability to carry out the programs that it has determined are warranted.”

The Trump administration has already ended TPS for more than a million immigrants, including about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, over 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some of those decisions remain tied up in lawsuits. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to terminate protections for Venezuelans, issuing no rationale in its brief order, as is common in emergency appeals.

How Many People Have Been Deported Under Trump in 2025?

According to official accounts, the Trump administration claimed approximately 140,000 deportations by April 2025. In the first 100 days of his second term, more than 139,000 individuals were reported removed. A Guardian analysis reveals that over 127,000 people have been deported since January, including more than 8,100 to countries not their own, some involuntarily sent to dangerous regions. The administration has aimed high—with discussions of deporting one million individuals in a year—but so far, the number remains far below that target, projected at about 212,000 for the full year.

The Latest on Trump’s Immigration Policy

The Trump administration has aggressively expanded immigration enforcement across multiple fronts in 2025. New policies include vetting immigrants for “anti-American” views, giving USCIS broad discretion to deny legal residency or citizenship based on political beliefs or social media activity. Interior enforcement has intensified with detainees in ICE custody exceeding 55,000, far above congressional funding, and daily arrests have surged—some days nearing 2,000 targets—marking a 268% rise in ICE arrests compared with mid–2024. Additionally, detention infrastructure has expanded with new facilities like Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink”, part of a broader campaign featuring detention centers such as “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Speedway Slammer.”

This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.

Update: 8/20/25, 6:15 p.m. ET: This article was updated with new information and remarks.