(Texas Scorecard) – More than 70,000 Honduran and Nicaraguan nationals residing in the United States will soon have their temporary legal status revoked, including several thousand living in Texas.
In notices published Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that it is terminating the Temporary Protected Status for certain nationals from Honduras and Nicaragua, saying neither country currently meets the conditions for the designation.
The TPS designation, established by Congress in 1990, provides certain foreign nationals with temporary legal status in the U.S. if returning to their home countries is deemed too dangerous due to political, economic, or environmental crises.
Honduran and Nicaraguan nationals first received the protections after Hurricane Mitch rocked the countries in 1998, causing at least 10,000 deaths and thousands more to go missing.
Approximately 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans have work permits and deportation protections under the TPS policy, according to the notices. The TPS terminations take effect in 60 days.
“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that—temporary,” stated DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago.”
“Honduran citizens can safely return home, and DHS is here to help facilitate their voluntary return,” she continued. “Honduras has been a wonderful partner of the Trump Administration, helping us deliver on key promises to the American people. We look forward to continuing our work with them.”
The department also said that Honduran President Xiomara Castro has taken steps to welcome citizens home and provide access to assistance programs and labor integration.
A 2019 report by the American Immigration Council found that Texas had some of the highest number of TPS holders in the country, at 124,710. Among them were 2,400 Hondurans and 1,900 Salvadoran landscape workers.
DHS’s latest moves are part of a broader initiative to scale back TPS. So far, the Trump administration has pulled the status from other illegal aliens hailing from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Yet, federal courts have been intent on slowing down the initiative.
District Judge Edward M. Chen of San Francisco blocked an effort to cut TPS protections for 350,000 Venezuelans in March. Two months later, the U.S. Supreme Court paused the district court ruling, allowing their TPS status to be revoked.
On July 1, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan of New York halted an effort by the Trump administration to reverse a Biden-era extension on TPS protections for up to 500,000 Haitians living in the U.S.