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A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from withdrawing deportation protection for thousands of immigrants from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua.
Independent reports that in a 37-page ruling, the court stated that a decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to cancel those temporary humanitarian protections appeared partially rooted in “racial and discriminatory animus.”
Judge Trina Thompson ruled that “Color is neither a poison nor a crime.”
Her decision is a reprieve for over 60,000 immigrants who were allowed to legally live and work in the United States under the \Temporary Protected Status program. The case was adjourned to November 18.
Thomson listed a series of statements from Noem in her decision. She also noted that the president amplified “the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.”
She wrote that, “By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, Secretary Noem’s statements perpetuated the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.”
In several lawsuits, immigrants’ advocacy groups and TPS holders have argued that the Trump administration explicitly relied on false and discriminatory stereotypes to justify the end of the program.
She continued that: “The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunities of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek. Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The court disagrees.”
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has accused the judge’s ruling of reading “like a New York Times opinion piece.”
Congress created the TPS program in 1990 to provide temporary immigration protections for people fleeing war, natural disasters, and “extraordinary and temporary” conditions in their home countries. Beneficiaries are allowed to apply for renewable work permits and protections against deportation.
But to carry out its plans for mass deportations, the administration has pushed to “delegalize” thousands of immigrants who were granted humanitarian protections to legally live and work in the US
