A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court's order that had kept in place temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal. This means that the Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose Temporary Protected Status designations expired Aug 5.

The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire Sept 8, at which point they will become eligible for removal. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the emergency stay pending an appeal as immigrants rights advocates allege that the administration acted unlawfully in ending Temporary Protected Status designations for people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

'The district court's order granting plaintiffs' motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court,' wrote the judges, who are appointees of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republicans George W Bush and Donald Trump. Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary, preventing migrants from being deported and allowing them to work.