US judge bars Trump from ending protected status for Yemeni nationals | Migration News

Trump administration has sought to cancel temporary protections for 13 countries as part of immigration crackdown.

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s administration from stripping temporary deportation protections for nearly 3,000 Yemeni nationals living in the US, in the latest legal setback for the president’s immigration crackdown.

US District Judge Dale Ho ruled on Friday in favour of a group of Yemenis who had sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over plans to end their Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

TPS grants people from countries suffering conflict, natural disasters and other dangerous conditions temporary protection against deportation. The Trump administration has sought to end TPS designations for 13 different countries, but they have largely been blocked in court.

The conservative-majority US Supreme Court agreed earlier this week to consider an appeal from the administration challenging similar rulings that have blocked the government from ending protections for more than 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,100 from Syria.

A DHS decision ending TPS for people from Yemen living in the US, first announced in February, was set to go into effect on Monday before being blocked by Judge Ho.

Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at the time of the initial announcement that Yemen “no longer meets the law’s requirements to be designated for Temporary Protected Status”, despite persistent concerns over conflict and humanitarian conditions.

The Middle Eastern nation was also one of 12 countries placed on a travel ban issued by the Trump administration last year.

Travel advisories from the US State Department warn residents against travelling to Haiti, Syria and Yemen due to threats such as terrorism, kidnapping and civil unrest. Advocates say that sending migrants living in the US back to those countries would endanger their lives.

“This really is life or death,” Sejal Zota, co-founder and legal director of Just Futures Law, told the news service Associated Press about the upcoming case before the Supreme Court.