Washington, DC [US], February 13 : The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday announced its decision to end deportation protections for Yemen under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), making Yemen the 13th country removed from the programme by the Trump administration.
The change affects Yemeni nationals living in the US who had been shielded from removal and permitted to work under TPS. Roughly 1,400 Yemenis are covered by the designation, according to The Hill.
"After reviewing conditions in the country and consulting with appropriate U.S. government agencies, I determined that Yemen no longer meets the law's requirements to be designated for Temporary Protected Status," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a release.
"Allowing TPS Yemen beneficiaries to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interest. TPS was designed to be temporary, and this administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent. We are prioritising our national security interests and putting America first," she added.
Yemeni nationals have been protected under TPS since 2015. The Hill noted that the designation had been extended multiple times in response to Yemen's ongoing instability.
When Noem's predecessor, former Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, redesignated Yemen for TPS in 2024, he wrote that the country was on "the brink of economic collapse."
"Yemen has been in a state of protracted conflict for the past decade, severely limiting civilians' access to water, food, and medical care, pushing the country to the brink of economic collapse, and preventing Yemeni nationals living abroad from safely returning home," he wrote in the 2024 designation, as cited by The Hill.
Efforts by the US Department of Homeland Security to end TPS protections for several countries have encountered repeated legal challenges, The Hill reported, although court decisions have varied in their impact on beneficiaries.
Last month, an appeals court ruled that Noem had improperly ended TPS for citizens of Venezuela and Haiti. According to The Hill, the court found that her derogatory comments about Haitians suggested she was influenced by racial animus.
A concurring opinion further observed that both Noem and President Trump had made statements that "were overtly founded on racist stereotyping based on country of origin," agreeing with a lower court's conclusion that the decision was "preordained" and not based on need, The Hill reported.