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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- NZ Herald
In September, Homeland Security will end temporary protections for more than 50,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans
The decision, announced in early July, has been met with outrage from immigrant communities across the country, prompting a lawsuit by the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group, and seven impacted individuals. The parties allege that the decision violated federal law by 'relying on a predetermined political decision' and 'racial animus', while ignoring 'dire' local conditions in those countries. Immigration advocates hope federal courts will step in to intervene. But the order has left tens of thousands of people grappling with the possibility that they will be forced to leave their families and US-citizen children to return to countries where they have no immediate family, no community, no jobs - places that in some cases they haven't seen in nearly three decades. 'My life has been here in the Bay Area,' said Jhony Silva, 29, a certified nursing assistant from Honduras, who is suing the Trump Administration for ending the programme. His parents brought him to the US as a toddler in 1998. 'I've been doing everything the right way this whole time,' said Silva, who fears being separated from his 9-year-old child, a US citizen. 'I am very, very worried.' President Bill Clinton established temporary protections for Hondurans and Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Central American nations in 1998. Since then, the Government has renewed the programme every six to 18 months, but the Trump Administration let it expire on July 5. The Administration has also moved to revoke TPS for as many as 900,000 people from Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Nepal living in the US, arguing that the programmes for nationals of countries facing conflict and environmental disaster was always intended to be temporary. Hondurans and Nicaraguans have had temporary protections for much longer - in some cases decades more - than immigrants from the other countries. Nearly 27 years after Hurricane Mitch, 'Honduran citizens can safely return home', Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement about ending that country's programme. Of Nicaragua's termination, a DHS spokesperson said the programme 'was never meant to last a quarter of a century'. It's not clear whether people affected will leave the US voluntarily or try to lie low to avoid deportation. The average TPS holder from Honduras and Nicaragua is aged 48 and has been in the US for more than 30 years, according to estimates from an immigration advocacy group. TPS holders from Honduras and Nicaragua told the Washington Post they now identify as American. Maria Elena Hernandez, 67, came to the US from Nicaragua in 1996 and has worked as a cleaner at a university in Broward County, Florida, for more than 17 years. She stands to lose her job and her employer-sponsored health insurance, which covers medication for asthma and a heart condition. 'This news destroyed me,' said Hernandez, who is also suing the federal Government. 'I am going to be separated from my family. I'm going to lose my medical insurance. I have a medicine that I have to take for life.' The Trump Administration's termination of multiple humanitarian programmes could strip three million immigrants of their status and work authorisation, according to some immigration experts. About 72,000 Hondurans and 4000 Nicaraguans have temporary protections, although roughly 22,100 of them have received green cards, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and therefore will be able to stay. Typically, administrations notify TPS holders six months or more before winding down TPS programmes for countries that have had the designation for more than three years. But when the Administration announced the terminations of the programmes for Hondurans and Nicaraguans on July 7, the programme had already expired two days earlier. 'The cruelty is really extraordinary,' said Emi MacLean, a senior lawyer at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California who is working on the lawsuit. 'These people have no criminal history, because you cannot maintain TPS with criminal history. They've been paying their taxes for decades. They've been paying to reregister. And the administration waiting until after the end date to announce a termination is something that has not been done before.' Jackey Baiza, now 30, was 2 when she came to Boston from Honduras with her mother. Her employer told her a day before the Fourth of July weekend that it was placing her on leave while awaiting notice as to whether the Trump Administration would extend the TPS programme for Honduras past its July 5 expiration. Baiza has since been asked to return to her human resources job until the programme runs out in early September. 'I have no direct communication with anyone in Honduras,' Baiza said. 'Being sent back is going to a place where I have absolutely no roots. I don't know where I would go. I have no clue how to navigate the country.' She fears separation from her mother, sister, and other immediate family members, all of whom have US citizenship or permanent residence. Baiza's mother secured permanent legal residence through Baiza's younger sister who was born in the US. Over the past three decades, thousands of Hondurans and Nicaraguans have used legal pathways to obtain green cards or citizenship, including through asylum applications, marriage to US citizens or through US-citizen children. But most immigrants with temporary protections, including Baiza, do not have obvious legal ways to remain in the country after early September. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Centre for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank that advocates for stricter immigration policies, called the order 'an important step in the right direction'. 'The lie of temporariness needs to end,' Krikorian said. 'It's not a great thing to uproot people who have been here for a long time, but the blame has to be on activists and politicians who have made sure TPS was perverted in this way. If the programme had lasted 12 to 18 months, it would be a lot less disruptive for people.' Many of the affected Hondurans and Nicaraguans work in construction, building and grounds maintenance, and transportation - industries that face labour shortages dating to the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Some regions are going to get hit really hard, and it's going to be even harder for folks to build things or provide healthcare,' said Brian Turmail, a vice-president at Associated General Contractors of America, a trade group that represents the construction industry. Silva worked at a Tesla factory in the paint department throughout the pandemic and was considered 'an essential worker', he said. Now he works as a certified nursing assistant in the cardiac unit at Stanford Hospital, bathing, dressing, and feeding sick patients. Growing up in the Bay Area, Silva participated in his church's youth group, went to the movies and played mini golf. He didn't think much about his immigration status, he said. When he graduated from high school in 2013 and tried to enlist in the US Army, a recruiter told him he was not eligible. 'I've tried to be as American as possible,' Silva said. 'But I've been in his country almost 30 years, and it's still so difficult for me to get any type of permanent status.' Mardoel Hernandez, 57, came by himself to the Washington DC area from Honduras at age 21 under the TPS programme. He works in real estate development and advocates for permanent status for the large Central American immigrant community in the area. The end of the programme 'means the end of everything,' Hernandez said. 'The end of the effort of my life.'
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US judges skeptical of Trump ending Venezuelan migrants' legal status
July 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday seemed poised to block the administration of President Donald Trump from stripping nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants of protections against deportation, with one judge singling out "arguably racist" comments by the Republican president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Pasadena, California, heard arguments in the administration's appeal of a March ruling that blocked the cancellation of temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans pending a challenge by advocacy group National TPS Alliance. The U.S. Supreme Court in May stayed that ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco pending the 9th Circuit appeal. The Trump administration would likely immediately appeal a 9th Circuit ruling against it to the Supreme Court. TPS is a humanitarian program that allows individuals to live and work in the United States temporarily due to unsafe conditions in their home countries, such as armed conflict or environmental disaster. The administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden first granted TPS to Venezuelans in 2021, citing high levels of crime due to political and economic instability. On Wednesday, all three judges on the 9th Circuit panel expressed concerns about the manner in which Noem abruptly eliminated TPS status for Venezuelans days after taking office in January, and just two weeks after the Biden administration had extended the program until October 2026. 'How can the country conditions have changed so drastically in that two-week period and the review by the new administration have been done so quickly?' Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said to Drew Ensign of the U.S. Department of Justice. Ensign pointed to Noem's comments that the Biden administration's reasoning in extending the program was "thin and inadequately developed" and violated legal requirements for the TPS program. 'Agencies have the inherent authority to reconsider decisions as long as it's done in a timely manner,' Ensign said. Circuit Judge Anthony Johnstone countered that if the Biden-era policy was legally flawed it could be challenged in court. 'If it's a legal concern have the lawyers deal with it,' said Johnstone, a Biden appointee. 'But what you can't do is disguise that as a policy reason when there's not otherwise authorization to do so.' And Circuit Judge Salvador Mendoza, also a Biden appointee, questioned whether racial animus motivated the decision. He pointed to comments by Noem and Trump, which he said "arguably are racist," that Venezuela had intentionally sent people to the United States from prisons and mental health facilities, and Noem's comments in a television interview that Venezuelan immigrants were "dirtbags." Chen in his March ruling had cited the same comments in finding that the decision to cancel TPS protections for Venezuelans "smacks of racism." Ensign on Wednesday said most of the comments came before Trump and Noem took office in January and so were not close enough in time to when the decision to eliminate TPS was made to bear on the case and that Noem had only referred to Venezuelan gang members as dirtbags. Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents the TPS Alliance, told the panel that the federal law creating the TPS program does not allow for determinations to be revisited once they are made except to fix minor typographical or factual errors. 'This scheme was designed to give stability and some amount of certainty for refugees,' he said. TPS status had been granted to about 250,000 Venezuelans in 2021 and 348,000 more in 2023. Chen's ruling only applies to the latter group because their status was set to expire in April. The other recipients could lose their legal status and associated benefits in September if the policy change survives court challenges. At least four other lawsuits have been filed challenging Noem's termination of TPS protections for Venezuelans and Haitians. The case is National TPS Alliance v. Noem, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 25-2120. For the plaintiffs: Ahilan Arulanantham of UCLA School of Law Center for Immigration Law and Policy For the government: Drew Ensign of the U.S. Department of Justice Read more: Judge blocks Trump administration from stripping deportation protections for Venezuelans US Supreme Court lets Trump end deportation protection for Venezuelans US judge blocks Trump from invalidating 5,000 Venezuelans' legal documents Trump is targeting Temporary Protected Status. What is it? US judge blocks Trump from ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians Court rejects Trump bid to end Venezuelan migrants' legal status
Global News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Trump administration sued after ending program protecting migrants
A group of immigrants affected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) decision to end their right to live in the country is suing the government body and its secretary, Kristi Noem. Seven defendants from the impacted nations, which include Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal, with the support of advocacy group the National TPS Alliance, filed the lawsuit claiming the discontinuation of their temporary protected status (TPS) was partially motivated by racial discrimination and in violation of the Constitution. The lawsuit also alleges the government disregarded country conditions and instead relied on a predetermined political decision to dismantle the TPS program. Lastly, the case challenges the government's refusal to provide a more extended 'orderly transition' or 'wind-down' period to TPS holders who have lived in the U.S. for decades. Noem announced Monday that her department would end TPS granted to people living in the U.S. from Nicaragua and Honduras, saying that it was safe for them to return to their home countries, a quarter of a century after a devastating natural disaster led them to seek refuge in the U.S. Story continues below advertisement TPS provides deportation relief and work permits to people whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event, but does not provide a path to citizenship or permanent residency. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The U.S. granted protection for Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Still, Noem says the government has made 'tremendous strides' since then to recover from the disaster, and that it is safe for Honduran nationals to return. The same applies to Nicaraguans, she says, with Nepal losing its TPS status on June 6. The National TPS Alliance says Noem's actions will threaten the livelihoods of an estimated 60,000 holders living lawfully in the United States, some for as long as 26 years, in the case of Honduras and Nicaragua, and 10 years in the case of Nepal. 'DHS has ordered that Honduran and Nicaraguan TPS holders be stripped of their legal status and work authorization in 60 days; Nepali TPS holders stand to lose their status by August 5th, 2025,' the advocacy group said in a press release on Tuesday. Story continues below advertisement One plaintiff, Jhony Silva, called Noem's decision 'heartless,' saying he was 'devastated' by the move. 'I've been in the United States since I was three years old. I work in a hospital, caring for cardiac patients. I've been doing it the 'right way' the whole time. Now, I am facing losing my job, the ability to care for my family, and the only home I've ever known,' he said. 'I hope that the people of this country will open their hearts and see TPS holders for what we are: human beings worthy of safety and dignity,' he added. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, which represents the plaintiffs, says the administration is forcing TPS holders, many of whom have children who are U.S. citizens, to make an impossible decision. 'They cannot safely go back to their country of nationality, leaving their families and communities, and yet they will be stripped of the right to live and work in the U.S.' The National TPS Alliance represents 320,000 members and says it continues to protect those it speaks for through legal channels, 'while pushing forward the fight for permanent residency.' 'We know that an attack on one TPS-designated country is an attack on all of us. Today, we tell our members from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal — and the entire TPS community — that we must stand up to hate, and we must do it together,' the press release continues. Story continues below advertisement DHS had previously terminated TPS for Venezuela in April, Haiti in June, Afghanistan in May, and Cameroon in March. According to NBC News, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit 'ignores the President's constitutionally vested powers.' 'TPS was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that's how previous administrations have used it for decades,' she said in a statement obtained by the U.S. outlet. 'The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side,' McLaughlin concluded. Jessica Bansal, a lawyer at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which represents the plaintiffs, says, 'the decisions to strip legal status from people who have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years, and in most cases at least 25, and followed all the rules, are not just callous. It's also illegal.' Story continues below advertisement 'The administration cannot manufacture a predetermined outcome without regard for its statutory obligations,' she concluded. No Homeland Security secretary has ever refused to provide a transition period of at least six months in the event of a termination of TPS where a country has been designated for three years or more, according to the National TPS Alliance.
NBC News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Trump administration sued after it ends program for 60,000 Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Nepalese
A group of immigrants with temporary legal status in the U.S. is suing the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security terminated the legal protections for some 60,000 people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. Seven plaintiffs from the affected countries, along with the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group, have filed the lawsuit against DHS and the agency's secretary, Kristi Noem, alleging that the terminations were, at least in part, motivated by racial animus and violated the Constitution. Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal have experienced natural disasters that have made it unsafe for their nationals to return home, leading to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations. On Monday, the Trump administration terminated the designation for those from Nicaragua, with a DHS spokesperson saying in a news release that the status 'never meant to last a quarter of a century.' It also terminated TPS for Honduras, with Noem similarly saying that TPS was designed to be 'just that — temporary.' Just over a month ago, DHS terminated the designation for Nepal. The terminations, the lawsuit said, will impose 'extraordinary and irreparable harm' on TPS holders if the decisions aren't reversed. 'I work in a hospital, caring for cardiac patients. I've been doing it the 'right way' the whole time,' Jhony Silva, a Honduran TPS holder and a plaintiff in the case, said in a release from the ACLU of Southern California, one of the legal groups representing the plaintiffs. 'Now, I am facing losing my job, the ability to care for my family, and the only home I've ever known.' Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit 'ignores the President's constitutionally vested powers.' 'TPS was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that's how previous administrations have used it for decades,' McLaughlin said in a statement. 'The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.' The lawsuit alleges that Noem, Trump and other officials made 'numerous' statements against non-white, non-European TPS holders based on their perceived race, ethnicity and national origin. In many cases, the suit said, officials disparaged TPS holders as 'criminals.' Under Noem's tenure, DHS has criticized the program for being responsible for, the suit says, allowing 'half a million poorly vetted migrants into this country — from MS-13 gang members to known terrorists and murderers' — referring to a DHS social media post from May after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to revoke TPS from nationals of four countries. However, the suit points out, TPS is available only to those who are already in the U.S. And anyone with more than one misdemeanor conviction does not qualify for the status. The suit also claims that the Trump administration's decision was based on predetermined political decisions and that DHS failed to give TPS holders a sufficient transition period. According to DHS announcements, TPS holders are being given 60 days before they will be stripped of their legal status and work authorizations. This means those from Nepal will have their status until Aug. 5. The lawsuit alleges that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by abandoning the longstanding practice of providing a transition period of at least six months when terminating TPS designations in place for more than three years, as they were in the cases of all three countries. 'This administration is forcing TPS holders — and their U.S. citizen children — to make an impossible choice,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law & Policy (CILP), another group representing the plaintiffs. 'They cannot safely go back to their country of nationality, leaving their families and communities, and yet they will be stripped of the right to live and work in the U.S.' While DHS has determined that the countries are environmentally safe to return to, critics say that the terminations could upend lives and put TPS holders in danger. The State Department has designated Nicaragua as a country Americans should reconsider traveling to, citing crime, the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of wrongful detention and the limited availability of health care. Honduras has received the same designation, and the State Department recommends increased caution when traveling in Nepal because of the potential for political violence. The lawsuit follows several others that have tried to block the Trump administration's attempts to end TPS. The National TPS Alliance, in addition to seven Venezuelan nationals, sued the administration in February after the government rescinded protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Judge blocks Trump administration from revoking protected status for thousands of Venezuelans
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the temporary protected status of roughly 5,000 Venezuelans who are in the U.S., despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's February decision to terminate a Biden-era extension of the program. U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen in San Francisco ruled Friday that thousands of Venezuelans who received paperwork extending their protected status during a brief period earlier this year could keep it. That period began when then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended protected status for Venezuelans in January and ended when Noem terminated it in February. Chen wrote that if their paperwork has their protected status ending in October 2026, those Venezuelans should not be eligible for deportation while the case is ongoing. The National TPS Alliance and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment on Friday's order. It's the latest decision in a legal saga that could affect around 350,000 Venezuelans who in 2023 were granted the right to temporarily live and work in the U.S. The National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Department of Homeland Security after Noem and the Trump administration stripped Venezuelans of their protected status shortly after the new president was inaugurated. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs in the case alleged that Noem's decision was racially discriminatory and violated legal procedures. They also cited Mayorkas' decision in the waning days of the Biden administration to extend temporary protected status for Venezuelans through October 2026. After a federal judge overseeing the case blocked President Donald Trump and his administration from terminating protected status for Venezuelans while the court case played out, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene. And earlier this month, in a two-paragraph order, the United States' highest court allowed the Trump administration to revoke TPS for Venezuelans despite the ongoing case. The Trump administration's move to terminate legal status for Venezuelans under TPS comes amid a broader push for mass deportations. Since the start of the second Trump administration in January, the government has detained and deported tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants. And other deportation attempts have also drawn legal challenges, like the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man whom the administration admitted was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. This article was originally published on
