Trump administration will reportedly revoke special residency status for 9,000 Nepalis who fled earthquake

President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirsjen Nielsen

(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to end the temporary protected status (TPS) granted to 15,000 Nepalis in 2015, after a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake hammered their country, The Washington Post reports, citing internal planning documents. There are only about 9,000 of those Nepalis left in the country, according to Congressional Research Service estimates, and they will have until June 24, 2019, to leave the U.S., once Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen signs off on the order.

The Trump administration has been reviewing all communities covered by TPS permits, and it has already revoked the special status for 200,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Haitians, and smaller numbers of immigrants from Nicaragua, Sudan, and Liberia, and Nielsen is likely to end TPS for 57,000 Hondurans in May. In January, Nielsen extended the TPS status for about 6,000 Syrians. Congress created the TPS designation in 1990 so the U.S. had a mechanism to not send people back to countries hit by natural disasters, wars, and other destabilizing tragedies.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.