Judge blocks US from ending protections for some immigrants
SAN FRANCISCO — A judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from ending protections that allowed immigrants from four countries to live and work legally in the United States, saying the move would cause “irreparable harm and great hardship.”
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco granted a request for a preliminary injunction against the administration’s decision to discontinue temporary protected status for people from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador.
The judge said there is evidence that “President Trump harbours an animus against non-white, non-European aliens which influenced his … decision to end the TPS designation.”
The ruling cited Trump’s 2015 campaign speech in which he characterized Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists, his call to bar Muslims from entering the United States and his vulgar reference to African countries during a meeting about immigration at the White House in January.