A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s bid to cancel deportation protections and work permits for more than 63,000 Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants, saying the decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared rooted in racism.
“Color is neither a poison nor a crime,” U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson said in a 37-page ruling Thursday, which postponed a Sept. 8 deadline Noem had imposed for those 63,000 immigrants to leave the country or lose Temporary Protected Status, better known as TPS.
The Trump administration is almost certain to appeal Thompson’s ruling and may have reason for optimism that it will be reversed in the appellate courts. The Supreme Court recently lifted the bulk of a lower-court judge’s order postponing Noem’s termination of TPS for thousands of Venezuelans, and allowed the termination of a similar immigration status known as parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
Still, Thompson’s accusation of racism by senior Trump administration officials concurred with the claims of advocates who have described the president’s mass deportation agenda as an effort to target people of color.
The San Francisco-based Biden appointee accused Noem of using terminology drawn from “the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.” The judge also pointed to language Donald Trump used on the campaign trail in 2023denouncing immigrants for “poisoning the blood of our country.” And she said Trump, Noem and others have conflated TPS recipients — who were admitted into the country legally — with criminals.
“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,” Thompson wrote in the preamble to her ruling. “The Court disagrees.”
Thompson’s conclusions echoed those of another San Francisco-based federal judge, Edward Chen. In a March ruling, the Obama appointee described Noem’s rationale for ending protections for Venezuelans as “a classic example of racism.”
Thompson’s decision Thursday extended the TPS status for Hondurans, Nepalis and Nicaraguans until Nov. 18. She said she plans to hold a hearing on that date to consider further relief.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night.
According tostatistics released last year, almost 53,000 Hondurans, nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans and over 7,500 Nepalis have TPS protection. Those groups are dwarfed by the population of Venezuelan TPS recipients, which totals about 600,000.
Under the 1990 law creating TPS, the status is supposed to be temporary and linked to dangerous conditions in immigrants’ home countries, such as the impact of war or natural disasters.
However, both Republican and Democratic administrations have extended some of the protections for years and even decades, leading to some TPS holders putting down significant roots in the U.S. The initial TPS designation for Nicaragua and Honduras came in 1999, during the Clinton administration, following devastation there caused by Hurricane Mitch. Nepal was given TPS status in June 2015 under the Obama administration after an earthquake struck near its capital.
Immigrant rights advocates say about half the TPS recipients are pursuing other avenues to stay in the U.S. legally, through claims for asylum or withholding of deportation to their home countries.
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