Because the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals doesn’t cover Washington, D.C., the ruling won’t affect a lower court’s order halting terminations for some Haitian immigrants.
An appellate court ruled that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem can proceed with eliminating special immigration status for some Honduran, Nicaraguan and Nepali immigrants in the U.S. The ruling reversed a lower court’s order that halted the three terminations.
A unanimous panel of three judges in the Ninth Circuit overrode the lower court late Monday night, adding in their order that Noem is likely to succeed on its reasons for the terminations, according to court documents. The ruling meant that about 60,000 immigrants must leave the U.S.
The National TPS Alliance filed the lawsuit in July, asserting that Noem violated the Administrative Procedure Act in disregarding the countries’ conditions and instead relying on political reasons to terminate the program. They also accused Noem of violating the Fifth Amendment by using race as a motivating factor.
“I cannot bear the thought of being separated from my family,” Jhony Silva, a plaintiff in the case, said in a release. Silva holds TPS status as a Honduran immigrant and has lived in the U.S. for 26 years and has a U.S.-born child who depends on him for care, support and insurance, according to court records.
The Ninth Circuit Court covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, the Northern Mariana Islands, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. Because of the court’s boundaries, it does not affect a lower court ruling out of Washington, D.C. that barred termination of Haitian’s temporary protected status.
Noem celebrated the Appellate Court’s ruling on X and reemphasized her stance that the program is only meant to be temporary and not used as a de facto amnesty program.
“A win for the rule of law and vindication for the US Constitution,” Noem wrote on X. “Under the previous administration, Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation.”
Noem terminated the special status for Nicaragua, Nepal and Honduras back in August. For Honduras and Nicaragua, migrants were granted the status following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, a Category 1 storm. The storm killed at least 8,000 people collectively and cost nearly $4.7 billion in total economic losses for both countries.
The U.S. mobilized support for hard-hit Central America, focusing international aid on Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, according to a press release archive from former President Bill Clinton. Part of the humanitarian assistance included granting TPS to Hondurans and Nicaraguans and issuing deportation stays for El Salvadorans and Guatemalans.
The secretary said in two press releases announcing the terminations that Honduras and Nicaragua were safe for people to return, noting that environmental conditions had improved in both countries.
“Temporary Protected Status was never meant to last a quarter of a century,” Noem said in a July 7 release.
For Nepal, the U.S. granted Nepali immigrants special status following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in 2015, according to the Federal Register. The quake and its aftershocks killed more than 8,700 people and displaced millions more. The U.S. asserted that Nepal could not respond to the disaster on its own and needed international assistance, and would be overwhelmed if migrants in the U.S. were returned to the country.
DHS said in an Aug. 14 release commemorating Noem’s first 100 days on the job that the program was “abused and exploited by illegal aliens.”
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