Immigrants Denied Change of Status on Return to U.S. Lose Appeal

Hondurans who were granted temporary protected status after being ordered deported and were then allowed to travel abroad filed their request to change their immigration status in the wrong forum when they returned, the Fifth Circuit said.

The Honduran immigrants filed their requests with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but it didn’t have jurisdiction over them, the opinion by Judge James L. Dennis said.

All four plaintiffs in this consolidated opinion were ordered removed from the U.S. before Jan. 5, 1999, when the U.S. attorney general designated Honduras for TPS after Hurricane Mitch made the country uninhabitable. The TPS designation ...