Federal Judge Strongly Signals Intent to Block Termination of TPS for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal

U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson today all but announced that she will permanently halt the Trump administration’s decision to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from more than 100,000 long-term residents from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal. At the close of an intense hearing on cross-motions for summary judgment in the Northern District of California, the judge told the packed courtroom that her tentative rulings favor the immigrants on nearly every major issue.

Judge Thompson indicated she intends to deny the government’s motion to dismiss, grant partial summary judgment to plaintiffs on two central Administrative Procedure Act claims, admit limited extra-record evidence including discovery materials, and allow testimony from a historian on the role of racism in U.S. immigration policy. While emphasizing that a written order will follow and all matters remain formally under submission, she described her current views as “guideposts” for the parties.

The case was brought on July 7, 2025, by the National TPS Alliance and seven individual TPS holders against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS, and the United States. Plaintiffs argue that the 2025 terminations violate the APA, are driven by racial animus in violation of equal-protection principles, and provide an unlawfully short transition period.

Honduras and Nicaragua have been continuously protected since Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998. Nepal was added in 2015 after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people.

These are the same countries the first Trump administration tried to deport in 2017–2018, only to be blocked by nationwide injunctions that lasted nearly five years. The Biden administration later extended the protections through mid-2025. Within weeks of taking office in January 2025, the second Trump administration moved to end them again, citing President Trump’s “Invasion” Executive Order and Secretary Noem’s public statements calling TPS an “immigration scheme that makes Americans less safe.”

In July 2025, Judge Thompson temporarily postponed the terminations (originally set to expire August 20) until today, November 18, finding plaintiffs likely to win on the merits. The Ninth Circuit later lifted that postponement pending appeal — allowing work permits to lapse for many — but expressly permitted the district-court case to proceed to today’s merits hearing.

Throughout the argument, plaintiffs highlighted internal DHS emails and documents showing termination memos were drafted before country-conditions research was even requested, State Department input arrived after decisions were effectively made, and new internal guidance restricted analysts to a single page of conditions while forbidding mention of violence, corruption, climate change, or women’s rights. Plaintiffs also pointed to decades of prior agency practice in which intervening crises were routinely considered, followed by an abrupt and unexplained reversal under the current administration.

Government lawyers insisted the TPS statute only requires the Secretary to determine whether the original 1998 hurricanes or 2015 earthquake still prevent safe return, and that consultation with the State Department need not follow any particular form or timing. Judge Thompson appeared skeptical, repeatedly pressing DHS counsel on whether drafting termination decisions before receiving any current country-conditions information could possibly satisfy the statute.

On the constitutional equal-protection claim, the judge noted such claims are rarely resolved on summary judgment and referenced her earlier findings of “racist tropes and dehumanizing generalizations” linked to the decisions. The claim will proceed.

Individual plaintiffs include a Nepali theater worker in San Francisco married to a U.S. citizen; a Nepali single mother of three American children, one with special needs, living in Virginia; and Honduran and Nicaraguan parents who have owned homes and worked legally in the United States for over a quarter-century.

The court scheduled a further case management conference for January 22, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. via Zoom and directed the parties to submit a joint scheduling proposal. A separate Ninth Circuit appeal of the earlier postponement order is moving quickly and could reach oral argument early next year.

If Judge Thompson’s tentative rulings become final, DHS will be ordered to reinstate TPS nationwide for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal and conduct any future reviews consistent with the statute and decades of established practice. Given the stakes for more than 100,000 people and the charged legal issues involved, the case is widely expected to return to the Ninth Circuit swiftly and could ultimately land before the Supreme Court.