❓WHAT HAPPENED: A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s plans to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua—bizarrely claiming, without evidence, that the administration’s policy change is motivated by racial animosity and fear of the white population’s replacement.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: U.S. District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, and plaintiffs representing TPS immigrants from the affected nations.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The ruling was issued on Thursday, with the case continuing as protections remain in place. A hearing is set for November 18.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity 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.” – Judge Trina L. Thompson
🎯IMPACT: TPS protections for the affected groups will remain in place while the case proceeds, miring the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts in further legal battles.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 60,000 immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The judge stated that the administration’s decision was influenced by discriminatory beliefs, including the notion that non-white immigrant groups could replace white Americans.
“The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity 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,” Judge Thompson wrote in her order, arguing without evidence that the decision to end TPS for certain immigrants is motivated by a “discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.”
Judge Thompson, appointed by former President Joe Biden to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, further pontificated: “Color is neither a poison nor a crime.”
TPS allows immigrants to live and work for a brief period in the United States if their home countries are deemed unsafe. However, the former Obama and Biden governments abused the TPS designation, extending the deportation protection far past its intended expiration and well after the crisis impacting the migrants’ nations of origin ended.
The Trump administration had already ended protections for immigrants from countries including Venezuela, Haiti, and Afghanistan. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued that conditions in Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua no longer warranted protections, but the court disagreed.
Judge Thompson argued that the administration failed to conduct an “objective review of the country conditions,” claiming political violence in Honduras and the aftermath of hurricanes in Nicaragua were grounds to extend the TPS designation. She also editorialized that, in her opinion, the decision seemed tied to broader campaign rhetoric rather than legitimate policy analysis.
The protections for the affected immigrants will remain in place as the case continues, with the next hearing scheduled for November 18.
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