Judge blocks Trump admin from terminating protected status for 3 countries
by Conrad Hoyt · Law & CrimeLeft: President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Right: U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press briefing at the Ecuadorian Presidential Palace, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Quito, Ecuador (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool). Inset: U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California).
A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from terminating legal protections for immigrants from three countries, finding that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's attempts to do so were likely driven by "racial animus."
Temporary protected status (TPS) designations are given to people from foreign countries entrenched in conflict, such as natural disasters, the Department of Homeland Security details, allowing citizens in those countries to seek temporary refuge in the U.S.
But while Noem argued in her orders terminating TPS for Nepal, Nicaragua, and Honduras that conditions in the countries had improved enough to warrant the designation revocations, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson was unconvinced the secretary had truly given the countries a fair review.
As the judge put it in her 37-page order, the plaintiffs – led by a TPS advocacy group named the National TPS alliance – "provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Secretary's TPS Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua terminations were based on a preordained determination to end the TPS program, rather than an objective review of the country conditions."
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As the court recounts, Noem published a federal registrar notice in June that terminated TPS for Nepal effective on Aug. 5. The next month, she did the same for Honduras and Nicaragua, effective Sept. 8. The immigration advocacy group and individual TPS holders sued, seeking a motion to postpone the terminations by arguing that the designation revocations violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.
Thompson, a Joe Biden appointee, found that the plaintiffs were "likely to succeed" on the merits of both of these claims. Regarding the APA, not only were Noem's efforts "preordained," as the TPS holders argued, but they "deviated from prior practice without good reason" – with that prior practice being the allowance of six months for TPS holders to "transition" out of the country, not the 60 days Noem allowed.
The immigration advocates' other claim was that Noem violated equal protections under the Fifth Amendment. It was here that Thompson was especially critical of the former South Dakota governor.
Pointing to past statements by Noem, the San Francisco-based judge wrote that they "reflect the Secretary's animus against immigrants and the TPS program even though individuals with TPS hold lawful status—a protected status that was expressly conferred by Congress with the purpose of providing humanitarian relief."
"Their presence is not a crime," Thompson added. "Rather, TPS holders already live in the United States and have contributed billions to the economy by legally working in jobs, paying taxes, and paying contributions into MediCare and Social Security."
"By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, Secretary Noem's statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population," the judge said.
Thompson also zoomed out, looking at President Donald Trump's administration and its larger agenda as evidence that prejudice was afoot. "The political climate surrounding the Secretary's comments on immigrants further supports the likelihood of racial animus," she wrote, later adding, "[c]olor is neither a poison nor a crime."
Roughly 60,000 people from Nepal, Nicaragua, and Honduras are protected by TPS, according to the Associated Press. Their TPS designations are set to be extended for months – as the next hearing for the case is scheduled for Nov. 18.
The Trump administration must write by Aug. 7 whether it intends to appeal Thompson's ruling.