Ninth Circuit agrees to rehear TPS case, beneficiaries not immediately affected

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this month agreed to rehear a case that implicates Temporary Protected Status designations of six countries.

Key Points:

• In 2018, a district judge in California issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.
• In 2020, a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to overturn the injunction. The ruling also implicated TPS for Honduras and Nepal, because of an agreement linking the litigation (Ramos v. Wolf) to a separate case that raised similar issues (Bhattarai v. Wolf).
• The 2020 ruling did not immediately end the TPS designations, and the plaintiffs asked the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its decision.
• The Ninth Circuit has now voted to vacate the 2020 ruling and rehear the case. Under Ninth Circuit rules, the case will now be heard by an 11-judge “en banc” panel.

Additional Information: The decision to rehear the case has no immediate impact on TPS beneficiaries. In November 2022, the Department of Homeland Security announced the extension of TPS designations for the six countries through June 30, 2024.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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