First-Term TPS Terminations for Six Countries Under White House Pressure (2017–2018)

What happened

Temporary Protected Status lets nationals of a designated country remain and work in the United States while conditions at home, such as war or natural disaster, make return unsafe. Designations last up to 18 months at a time and can be renewed indefinitely (CRS). Through 2017 and 2018 the Trump administration moved to end TPS for six countries: Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Nepal (CLINIC).

On 20 November 2017 Acting Secretary Elaine Duke announced that Haiti's designation, made after the 2010 earthquake, would end on 22 July 2019. She concluded that "those extraordinary but temporary conditions caused by the 2010 earthquake no longer exist," citing a 97 percent fall in the number of displaced people (DHS). The other terminations followed. The district court later recorded that over 200,000 US-citizen children faced "the prospect of leaving the only home they have ever known, or growing up without one or both of their parents," and that some 300,000 non-citizens faced the loss of their homes, jobs and communities (as described in Judge Christen's dissent in the Ninth Circuit).

What the record showed

In Ramos v. Nielsen, Judge Edward Chen found evidence that "the White House was putting pressure on DHS to end TPS" and "did, in fact, have influence on the TPS decisions." The Ninth Circuit opinion describes the evidence he relied on:

• testimony that Stephen Miller "frequently" contacted DHS's chief of staff about TPS and "favored the termination of TPS";
• a National Security Council memo recommending termination, distributed before a White House principals meeting;
• an email from Duke to Chief of Staff John Kelly saying her decisions "will send a clear signal that TPS in general is coming to a close. I believe it is consistent with the President's position on immigration," and that "this decision is really just a difference in strategy to get to the President's objectives";
• a draft Duke memo stating: "The TPS program must end for these countries soon … This conclusion is the result of an America first view of the TPS decision."

He also found evidence that political appointees were "'repackaging' the memos" of career staff "in order to get to the President/White House's desired result of terminating TPS," especially for Sudan.

On the President's own views, the court cited his June 2017 remarks that Haitian immigrants "all have AIDS." It also cited the 11 January 2018 meeting on immigration, at which TPS designations were discussed and he asked: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?", adding that immigrants from Haiti "must be left out of any deal."

The litigation

• 3 October 2018: Judge Chen enjoined the terminations for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan, finding serious questions on both the APA and equal-protection claims. Honduras and Nepal were linked to the case in March 2019 (USCIS; CLINIC).
• 11 April 2019: Judge William Kuntz in New York separately enjoined the Haiti termination nationwide in Saget v. Trump, a case citing the President's statements about Haitians (CLINIC).
• 14 September 2020: A divided Ninth Circuit panel vacated Judge Chen's injunction. It held that 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(5)(A) barred review of the APA claim. On equal protection, it said the findings that the President "expressed racial animus against 'non-white, non-European' immigrants, and that the White House influenced the TPS termination decisions, were supported by record evidence." But it found no evidence "linking the President's animus to the TPS terminations." Judge Christen dissented and would have affirmed on the APA claim (Ramos v. Wolf). The plaintiffs petitioned for rehearing en banc (CLINIC). The injunction stayed in force, and DHS kept extending holders' documents, eventually through June 2024 (USCIS).

In June 2026 the Supreme Court, in Mullin v. Doe (a challenge to the 2025 terminations), held that the TPS statute bars all non-constitutional challenges to termination decisions (CRS). See the 2026 rulings entry.

Legal analysis

Upgrade check. Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute requires deportation without grounds permitted under international law, as part of an attack on a civilian population. Ending a discretionary temporary status, where no one was removed under these terminations, does not approach that. No international crime is in play.

Elements.

1. Termination decisions. Confirmed.
2. Departure from past practice and a pre-determined outcome. Found at the preliminary stage by the district court; the dissent agreed. The majority held the question unreviewable rather than rejecting it on the facts.
3. Discriminatory motive. Presidential animus and White House pressure were found and accepted by the appellate majority as supported by the record. The causal link to the decisions was found not shown.
4. Harm. Threatened, not realised. The injunctions kept status and work authorisation in place for years, but holders lived under an announced end date.

Strongest defence argument. The TPS statute makes these decisions the Secretary's alone and bars judicial review; "temporary" status was never meant to become permanent after twenty years; and the Ninth Circuit majority found no evidence that the President's views drove the Secretaries' decisions. The Supreme Court's 2026 reading of the review bar strengthens the first point. The record of White House pressure and rewritten staff memos remains, but no court has finally held that it made the decisions unlawful.

Why this grade

Major. The record shows political pressure from the White House, staff recommendations reshaped to reach a predetermined result, and a President who had expressed racial animus toward the affected nationalities. That is an abuse of office in the use of a humanitarian programme. It is not severe: the terminations never took effect, no final judgment found them unlawful, and the appellate courts reached the opposite result on reviewability. The comparable 2025 terminations, which did take effect, are graded separately in mass TPS terminations. No warCrimeClassification is given.