Federal Court Hears Challenge to TPS Terminations for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua
Lawsuit Alleges Trump Administration’s Decision Violates Law, Harms Communities
WASHINGTON — A U.S. District Court in San Francisco, presided over by Judge Trina L. Thompson, held a hearing on July 29, to address a challenge to the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as reported by Kishor Panthi for Asian American Media on the same date.
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The lawsuit, National TPS Alliance et al. v. Noem et al., filed on July 7, 2025, by the National TPS Alliance and seven individual plaintiffs, contests the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to end TPS designations, set to expire on August 5, 2025, for Nepal and September 8, 2025, for Honduras and Nicaragua. The plaintiffs argue that the terminations violate the Administrative Procedure Act, involve racially motivated constitutional violations, and provide an inadequate 60-day transition period.
On July 28, 2025, DHS submitted 4,876 pages of administrative records to justify the terminations, including 1,988 pages for Nepal, 1,719 for Nicaragua, and 1,169 for Honduras, according to Panthi’s report. Both parties filed responses to court questions, with the plaintiffs submitting a 28-page document and the defendants, representing the Trump administration, providing a 24-page response, addressing the plaintiffs’ motion to delay the terminations.
New York City and 13 other local governments, including Los Angeles County, filed an amicus curiae brief on July 25, 2025, supporting the plaintiffs and urging the court to postpone the terminations, citing significant harm to communities and local economies, per the report.
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Case Background
TPS, a humanitarian program, allows nationals of designated countries to live and work legally in the U.S. when conditions like armed conflict or natural disasters make return unsafe. Nepal’s TPS, granted in 2015 after a devastating earthquake, initially covered 15,000 Nepalis, but the number of beneficiaries dropped to 7,505 by December 2024, as many transitioned to other immigration statuses, according to Panthi.
The Trump administration’s 2017 and 2018 attempts to end TPS for Nepal and other countries were halted by a 2018 injunction in Ramos v. Nielsen, supported by advocacy groups like Adhikaar. The Ninth Circuit overturned that injunction in 2023, but the Biden administration extended Nepal’s TPS to June 24, 2025. The current terminations, announced in June 2025, allow only a 60-day wind-down, deviating from the standard six-month extension required if no decision is made 60 days before expiration.
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Thank you for suing Christy I'm so sick tired of her and all the goons involved with kidnapping innocent people and separating families cuz they are fascist pigs!!!!
I am deeply disgusted with DHS approval of the Trump administration to cancel TPS. America is a country made of migrants, Christy Noem biased decision is unprecedented targeting TPS as Trump's latest victim.