In a decision that could upend the lives of more than 70,000 Central American nationals living lawfully in the United States, the Trump administration on Monday, July 7, 2025, outlined plans to withdraw Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from citizens of Honduras and Nicaragua.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that the long‑standing TPS designations for both countries will be terminated in early September, placing current beneficiaries at risk of removal unless they can secure an alternative lawful status.
Official DHS notices indicate that roughly 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans—many of whom arrived in the 1990s—currently hold work authorizations and protection from deportation under TPS.
Established by Congress in 1990, TPS provides a provisional haven to foreign nationals when returning home would be unsafe because of armed conflict, environmental catastrophe, or similar crises.
While the Biden administration dramatically widened TPS eligibility—particularly for Haitians and Venezuelans—President Trump has pledged to scale back the program as part of what he calls the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history. His team has already moved to unwind TPS for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, significantly enlarging the pool of people now subject to arrest and removal.
Although several of those actions remain tied up in court, the Supreme Court this spring allowed officials to strip TPS protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals.
TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua was first granted in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch caused widespread flooding and claimed thousands of lives across Central America. In the newly released termination orders, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued that both nations have recovered sufficiently to repatriate their citizens. “Temporary Protected Status, as the name itself makes clear, is an inherently temporary status,” both notices state.
Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada condemned the decision, warning that it will fracture families and damage local economies. “These families have been here since the 1990s, working hard and contributing to our state and country for decades,” she said. “Sending innocent families back into danger won’t secure our border or make America safer.”
