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A federal judge in California delayed the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to terminate protections for immigrants from three countries, a move that adds to the legal hurdles for the Trump administration as it pushes to carry out its deportation agenda.
Judge Trina Thompson said that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s terminations of temporary protected status, also known as TPS, for immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal were likely “preordained decisions” that violated the Administrative Procedure Act and were driven by racial animus.
“The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek,” Thompson, a Biden-appointee, wrote in an order. “Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees.”
Thompson later added: “Color is neither a poison nor a crime.”
DHS TERMINATES TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS FOR AROUND 76K HONDURAN, NICARAGUAN MIGRANTS
The lawsuit was brought by a group representing TPS holders, including some who have lived in the country for more than two decades.
Attorneys wrote in court papers on behalf of the immigrants that they were “laborers, health care workers, artists, and caretakers” who have “relied on TPS to provide the most basic forms of human security — a stable place to live and a chance to work for a living during a time of severe crisis in their home countries.”
They argued that Noem declining to extend their TPS status was, by law, supposed to be reached based on an individualized analysis of each country. The judge found that Noem likely failed to condition TPS termination on factors specific to the immigrants’ countries of origin.
They also said Noem had given the immigrants a historically short notice period of 60 days before they would lose their TPS status. And she and other Trump administration officials have normalized using “racist invective” to explain their TPS decisions, the attorneys said.
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The attorneys cited dozens of examples of Trump or Noem describing migrants as MS-13 gang members, murderers, terrorists and people who have it in their “genes” to commit crime. They pointed to Trump’s viral debate moment in which he made the unproven claim that Haitian immigrants were eating Ohioans’ house pets.
The TPS program gives the DHS authority to permit immigrants who might otherwise have no legal status to temporarily reside in the United States because of extraordinary circumstances in their home countries, such as wars or natural disasters.
The plaintiffs argued that roughly 61,000 people would lose their TPS as a result of Noem’s decision, which would end the immigrants’ legal status and work authorizations and make them eligible for deportation.
The Trump administration has argued that the statute governing TPS gives DHS secretaries sole discretion over TPS designations and that Noem should be allowed to end the status using the same authority that past secretaries used to grant it.
In May, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in an emergency order related to a case involving TPS for Venezuelans. The order temporarily paused a lower court order, clearing the way for Noem to end TPS for about 350,000 immigrants.
Thompson’s decision will stay in place until at least November, when the next hearing is scheduled. DHS told Fox News Digital it plans to appeal the decision.
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