On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end protections for thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Sudan, Nicaragua and Haiti who live and work legally in the U.S.
In his preliminary injunctions, the judge ruled that the program’s termination would result in “irreparable harm and great hardship” for its beneficiaries and their families. He further cited evidence that President Donald Trump’s motives in ending the protected status for over 300,000 immigrants were based on racial discrimination against “non-white, non-European aliens.”
“Beneficiaries who have lived, worked, and raised families in the United States (many for more than a decade), will be subject to removal,” Chen wrote, according to Fox News.
He also referred to the President’s “s—hole countries” comments he had reportedly made about African countries back in January, as well as to his characterization of Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists as proof of Trump’s animus against immigrants.
The Temporary Protected Status program provides protection for migrants from countries enduring crises such as health epidemics, war or natural disasters. The judge wrote in his injunction that these protections, which would have otherwise been lost by next year, had to be kept in place.
Working Families United, a coalition of six unions representing immigrant workers, supported the judge’s claim of racial bias, saying that Chen’s ruling shows “Trump’s move to terminate TPS was based in his racial motivations and not in any law or consideration of safety.”
Beneficiaries of the program have protested the Trump administration’s move to end their protections, which culminated last week with dozens of truck drivers in Los Angeles stopping traffic to demonstrate against TPS revocation.
Chen’s ruling is the latest in a series of cases where judges have ruled against the President’s harsh immigration policies using his derogatory comments as a basis. Chen has also accused Trump of being motivated by racism multiple times, such as a last month’s hearing when he suggested the decision to end TPS was driven by the administration’s America First policy.
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