Judge blocks Trump administration from ending deportation protections for 2,800 Yemenis

Washington — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal protections for more than 2,800 Yemeni nationals allowed to temporarily live and work in the United States, finding that the Department of Homeland Security likely acted unlawfully when it moved to end the benefits earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in New York ruled in favor of 16 Yemeni nationals who either have Temporary Protected Status or are applying for the protection. He agreed to keep the program in place while their lawsuit proceeds.

Ho, appointed by former President Joe Biden, found that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely violated the law when she failed to adhere to the process mandated by Congress for reviewing a country’s conditions before she moved to end TPS for Yemen.

The department, he wrote, “acted unlawfully by terminating TPS in clear disregard of the procedural requirements established by Congress.”

Yemen was first designated for TPS in 2015 during the Obama administration, based on the determination that there was an ongoing armed conflict that made the country unsafe for Yemeni nationals to return to. DHS re-upped the deportation protections several times, including during the first Trump administration. The most recent redesignation came in 2024, which cited an ongoing civil war and humanitarian crises.

The State Department has a Level 4 travel advisory in place for Yemen, which warns Americans not to travel to the country because of “terrorism, unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping and landmines.”

Nonetheless, in February, Noem announced TPS would be ended for the country. In a federal notice published in March, DHS said that “while Yemen still experiences extraordinary and temporary conditions, the termination of Yemen’s Temporary Protected Status designation is required because it is contrary to the national interest to permit Yemeni nationals … to remain temporarily in the United States.”

The program was set to end May 4, giving Yemeni immigrants authorized to live and work in the U.S. 60 days to leave the country or risk arrest and deportation. But Ho’s order now halts that effective date.

In his ruling, the judge said that the process undertaken by DHS before it ultimately decided to end the TPS program for Yemen was “short-circuited, violating the TPS statute and frustrating the public accountability that the [Administrative Procedure Act] is designed to protect.”

“TPS holders from Yemen are not ‘killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.’ They are ordinary, law-abiding people who have been granted status to be here because the Government has repeatedly determined, in accordance with the TPS statute, that Yemen is subject to an ongoing armed conflict, and that, due to that conflict, requiring them to return would pose a serious threat to their safety,” he wrote.

The judge continued: “That determination is subject to periodic review and can be changed. But Congress has, by statute, established a process for such review, which the Secretary failed to adhere to here.”

Yemen is one of 13 countries that the Trump administration has revoked TPS for. The Supreme Court is considering its effort to roll back the protections for Syria and Haiti and heard arguments in that case Wednesday. A decision is expected by the end of June or early July.

Congress enacted the TPS program in 1990. It gives the homeland security secretary the power to provide temporary, country-specific relief to foreign nationals who cannot safely return to their home countries because of war, natural disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

Relief is limited to up to 18 months, but the secretary can extend TPS designations. Congress also restricted who can receive TPS, excluding foreign nationals who have been convicted of a felony or more than one misdemeanor; engaged in drug trafficking; belong to a terrorist group; or whose presence in the U.S. would endanger national security or foreign policy