US Judge Blocks Trump Administration from Ending Temporary Protected Status for Yemenis
Al Jazeera Staff
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for nearly 3,000 Yemeni nationals, dealing a new legal blow to the White House's immigration policies. The ruling halts the planned TPS termination that was set to take effect May 12.
On May 10, Judge Dale Ho of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of a group of Yemeni citizens who had sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its plan to terminate their TPS designation. The ruling takes immediate effect, blocking the TPS revocation scheduled for May 12.
TPS allows nationals from countries experiencing conflict, natural disasters, or other dangerous conditions to live and work legally in the United States without fear of deportation. The Trump administration has sought to end TPS for 13 countries, but most of those decisions have been blocked by courts.
In February 2026, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem declared that Yemen "no longer meets the legal requirements for TPS designation," despite the country's ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis. Yemen is also one of 12 nations included in the Trump administration's travel ban announced last year.
The latest ruling comes as the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, has agreed to hear the administration's appeal of similar decisions that blocked TPS terminations for more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians. U.S. State Department travel advisories continue to warn Americans against visiting Haiti, Syria, and Yemen due to threats of terrorism, kidnapping, and civil unrest.
"This is genuinely a life-or-death issue," Sejal Zota, legal director of Just Futures Law, told the Associated Press. Advocates argue that deporting refugees back to these countries could endanger their lives.
