The BareStory
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem acted unlawfully when she terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals from Venezuela and Haiti. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision, determining that the TPS legislation enacted by Congress did not grant the secretary the authority to vacate an existing designation.
Writing for the panel, Judge Kim Wardlaw stated that the secretary’s actions resulted in "real and significant consequences," noting that contributing members of society with no criminal records faced deportation or detention. In a separate concurring opinion, Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr. wrote that there was "ample evidence of racial and national origin animus" behind the move and described the secretary's official reasoning as "pretextual."
Government attorneys had argued that the secretary possesses broad authority over the TPS program, that such decisions are not subject to judicial review, and denied that the termination was motivated by discrimination. Administration officials previously stated that continuing the protections was not in the national interest, arguing that the designation undermined border security and created a "magnet effect" for illegal migration. The DHS also contended that conditions in the affected countries had improved enough to warrant ending the program.
The appellate court's decision will not have an immediate practical impact on the status of those affected. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Secretary Noem’s termination of the program to take effect while a final ruling is pending. Consequently, legal status for over 268,000 Venezuelans expired in late 2025, and protections for approximately 353,000 Haitian nationals are scheduled to end in February.
How it may affect me
As a U.S. reader:
Future executive attempts to end immigration programs may be restricted after the court ruled that the Secretary lacks the statutory authority to vacate existing designations.
You will see no immediate reversal of the program's termination because the Supreme Court previously allowed the Secretary’s actions to take effect while appeals are pending.
Communities may see increased detention or deportation proceedings involving hundreds of thousands of individuals whose protections have expired or are scheduled to end in February.
National debate regarding border security may intensify as the administration argues that ending these protections is necessary to stop a magnet effect for illegal migration.
