A federal judge has decided to block the Trump Administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants.
According to reports, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes granted a stay in her 83-page opinion, allowing the legal status of Haitian nationals. Judge Reyes accused Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, of “preordaining her termination decision, saying she did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
She also wrote, “There is an old adage among lawyers, if you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.”
Reyes continued, “Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows that she does not have the facts on her side or at least has ignored them.” She added, “[She] does not have the law on her side, or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (formerly known as Twitter).
Judge Reyes did acknowledge that Noem does have the First Amendment right to call immigrants “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” however, she has failed to apply all of the facts to the law while implementing TPS.
“The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste,” Judge Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem complains of the strains that unlawful immigrants place on our immigration enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight.”
She added that TPS exists because “threats to life exist; when the threat persists, so should TPS protection, unless the Secretary articulates a well-reasoned and well-supported national interest to the contrary.”
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