Press Release  AG Campbell Defends Temporary Protected Status for Immigrants From Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today joined a coalition of 15 attorneys general in opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unlawful and baseless attempt to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Honduran, Nepali, and Nicaraguan immigrants. In an amicus brief filed today in National TPS Alliance v. Noem, the coalition highlight the devastating economic and humanitarian consequences of ending these TPS protections and urge the court to stop the unlawful actions of DHS. 

The TPS program is a critical humanitarian lifeline established by Congress in 1990 that protects immigrants from being returned to countries that have been deemed unsafe, allowing them to work and build lives in the United States. 

On June 6, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem moved to terminate Nepal’s designation for TPS protection, revoking TPS for approximately 7,200 Nepali immigrants who have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for more than a decade since the catastrophic 2015 earthquakes.

On July 8, Secretary Noem announced DHS would also terminate TPS designations for Honduras and Nicaragua, revoking the status of 51,000 and 2,900 immigrants, respectively. TPS holders from Honduras and Nicaragua, who were granted TPS status in 1999 due to the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch, have built their lives in the United States for more than 25 years. In total, the three TPS terminations would strip more than 60,000 people of the legal status that has enabled them to participate in and strengthen the civic life and economy of the United States. 

The attorneys general warn that thousands of families of Honduran, Nepali, and Nicaraguan TPS holders across their states will be profoundly harmed if the terminations are allowed to proceed. In 2022, around 68,000 U.S. citizens lived with a Honduran TPS holder, approximately 13,000 U.S. citizens lived with a Nicaraguan TPS holder, and approximately 23,000 U.S. citizens lived with a Nepali TPS holder. In total, over 100,000 U.S. citizens lived in mixed-status households with people who are now at risk of losing their legal status, potentially leading to devastating family separations. 

Now, TPS holders from these countries face a devastating choice between: 

• Returning to their country of origin alone, facing danger and instability, and leaving their families behind;
• Taking their family members, some of whom are American citizens, with them to a dangerous country that they do not know; or
• Staying in the United States and retreating into the shadows, knowing that they cannot work legally and could be ripped from their families at any time. 

The attorneys general are urging the court to issue preliminary relief postponing these revocations and protecting TPS holders from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua.  

Joining AG Campbell in filing this brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. 

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