S.F. judge blocks Trump plan to revoke legal status for immigrants from three countries
The immigrants are among about 1.1 million from 17 nations who have been granted temporary protected status, shielding them from deportation because of dangers in their home countries. Trump has ordered those protections revoked, saying conditions abroad have improved and some of the immigrants are gang members, while others cause financial burdens.
But U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson of San Francisco said the revocation was clearly based on Trump's executive order to 'protect the American people against invasion' by undocumented immigrants. She cited Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's declaration that immigration was 'an invasion happening on purpose … to remake the foundations of this country.'
'By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, Secretary Noem's statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population,' wrote Thompson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden.
Her ruling, unless overturned on appeal, allows the immigrants to keep their protected status until at least Nov. 18, when she has scheduled a hearing on whether to overturn Noem's order.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled in May that Trump could revoke TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans, putting them at risk of deportation. The court did not state any reasons for its decision, so it is not binding on lower courts in other cases on protected status, but it may have signaled that the nation's high court will defer to the president on the issue.
The immigrants in the San Francisco case include about 51,000 from Honduras, 7,200 from Nepal and 2,900 from Nicaragua. They have thousands of U.S.-born children who are U.S. citizens but, depending on their age and financial status, may have to accompany their parents if the parents are deported.
Trump and Noem have both called for an end to temporary protected status, part of the president's efforts to purge the U.S. of immigrants.
Temporary protected status, established by a law passed by Congress with bipartisan support in 1990, allows immigrants to live and work in the United States when their home country has become dangerous because of war, natural disasters or other hazardous conditions. The protections are subject to U.S. government renewal every six, 12 or 18 months, depending on the homeland.
Hondurans and Nicaraguans were granted temporary protected status in 1999 after the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch, a status the U.S. has renewed after other natural disasters and political and economic turmoil in their countries. The Nepalese were given TPS protections after a huge earthquake in 2015, which has caused flooding and landslides.
When TPS is revoked, its holders immediately lose their right to work and work-related health benefits, and they can be deported unless they are granted political asylum or find other pathways to legal residence.
They 'will no longer be able to provide food or housing for their families … will lose their driver's licenses, lose their ability to pursue educational and career opportunities, and face deportation,' Thompson said in Thursday's ruling.
While Noem contended conditions in the three countries have improved, the judge said Noem ignored ongoing natural disasters in the countries, and, in Honduras, 'anti-democratic human rights violations and the humanitarian crisis which has led to 108,000 people fleeing the country.'
The administration's actions were based on 'a preordained determination to end the TPS program,' Thompson said. She said the immigrants are being told 'to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood.'
Another federal judge in San Francisco was due to hear arguments Friday on the status of the Venezuelans and nearly 350,000 Haitians, whose TPS protections the administration also seeks to remove.
At a hearing Tuesday, Thompson asked the Trump administration's lawyer whether the targeting of Latin American and Nepalese TPS holders might be racially motivated. She cited a 2018 meeting between Trump and members of Congress in which the president, referring to Haiti and Africa, asked, 'Why do we want all these people from s—hole countries?' and suggested allowing only migrants from nations such as Norway.
Was the president trying to say 'what Americans should look like?' the judge asked.'How should I interpret that? Racial animus?'
Justice Department attorney William Weiland avoided a direct answer, saying only that 'new administrations are allowed to come in with new policies.'
Citing the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling allowing Trump to ban all travel to the U.S. from a group of nations with mostly Muslim populations, Weiland argued that courts have no authority to review or overturn presidential decisions on temporary protected status, because it is connected to foreign policy.
'There is no looking behind the curtain,' he said.
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