U.S. Judge extends TPS expiration dates for 60,000 people from Central America and Nepal

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sits on a horse as she speaks to the press upon arrival to the Campo De Mayo Military Base in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. federal judge in California extended on Thursday protected status for 60,000 people from Central America and Asia that was ended by the Trump administration.

The order affects about 7,000 people from Nepal along with 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans. The order came as the people from Nepal’s protection was set to expire Tuesday while people from Central America were set to have their protections expire on Sept. 8. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the government had determined that conditions in their home countries no longer warranted protections.

Temporary status protections have allowed Hondurans and Nicaraguans to reside and work lawfully for more than 25 years, but the secretary said that both countries had made “significant progress” in recovering from 1998’s Hurricane Mitch.

Temporary Protected Status is a temporary protection that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people of various nationalities who are in the United States, which prevents them from being deported and allows them to work. The Trump administration has aggressively been seeking to remove the protection, thus making more people eligible for removal.

U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco said that plaintiffs had provided evidence that the government’s decision to end protections was racially motivated, granting the request for an extension made by the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group that alleges the terminations were unlawful.

“Color is neither a poison nor a crime,” she wrote.

Janie Har, The Associated Press