Judge blocks end of Yemen deportation protections as Supreme Court weighs TPS case

A federal judge’s decision in Manhattan kept more than 2,800 Yemenis from losing deportation protection just days before it was set to lapse, turning a humanitarian safeguard into the latest test of how far the courts will go in checking the Trump administration’s immigration rollbacks.

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho on May 1 blocked the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Yemeni nationals, which had been scheduled to expire at midnight on May 4. Ho said the Department of Homeland Security likely failed to follow the consultation process the law requires before ending TPS, pausing the termination while the case moves forward.

The ruling came only days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a separate TPS dispute involving about 350,000 Haitians and roughly 6,000 Syrians. The high court is expected to rule by late June, and its decision is widely viewed as one that could shape other TPS fights, including the Yemen case now before Ho. For migrants from conflict zones, the legal fight has shifted decisively from agency action to the courts.

Yemen’s TPS designation dates to 2015 and has been renewed six times, reflecting the country’s prolonged civil war and humanitarian collapse. The plaintiffs said ending the status would force people back into a country ravaged by a decade of conflict, where some feared persecution by Houthi rebels and the loss of medical care. Their case also centered on family and health consequences, including U.S.-citizen children and a pregnant plaintiff with a medically fragile unborn child.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said the lawsuit was brought as a class action by seven Yemenis with TPS or pending applications and represented a class of 3,235 people. Reports put the number of current TPS holders at about 2,810, with another 425 pending applicants. The plaintiffs argued the termination violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.

Ho said he would ordinarily wait for guidance from the Supreme Court, but acted because of “the exigencies of the moment.” The Department of Homeland Security argued Yemen no longer met the statutory requirements for TPS and that keeping Yemenis in the United States was not in the national interest.

The administration has sought to terminate TPS for 13 countries during Donald Trump’s second term, and the Yemen order is one more setback in a broader campaign to unwind protections for migrants whose futures now depend on judges, not just the executive branch.