Trump can end temporary legal status for 4 countries, court says
The Trump SAN DIEGO — administration can end humanitarian protections thathaveallowedhundredsof thousands of people fromEl Salvador, Nicaragua, Haitiand SudantoremainintheUnited States, adividedappealscourt ruled Monday.
While an appeal is imminent and orders to leave wouldn’t take effect for months, the decisionmoved many people closer to losing legal status, including familieswhohavebeenin theU.S. for decades and have young children who are American citizens.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction that blocked the government fromending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for people from those four countries that are affected by natural disasters and civil conflict.
The order also applies to beneficiaries fromHonduras and Nepal, who sued separately but are subject toMonday’s ruling under an agreement between attorneys for both sides, said Ahilan Arulanantham, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who argued on behalf of TPS holders.
Since 1990, the policy has granted temporary legal status, which is often extended. ButtheTrumpadministration decided to end it for several countries, saying the conditionsthatjustifiedprotections in America no longer exist.
That decision had been on hold even as President Donald Trumpmoved to restrict other forms of humanitarian status in theU.S., such as refugee resettlementandaccess to asylum.
A three-judge 9th Circuit panel inPasadena, California, rejected arguments that the administration failed to follow proper procedures and that racially motivated comments by the president and his aides about some of the countries drove the decision to end TPS.
The ACLU noted that in 2017, Trumpsaidrecentimmigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS” and that Nigerians, onceseeingtheUnitedStates, wouldnever “goback to their huts” in Africa.
White House pressure on Homeland Security leaders toendTPSdidn’tprove racial motivation and was “neither unusual nor improper,” wrote Judge Consuelo Callahan, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. She noted that the administration extended TPS for other non-white, non-European countries.
Judge Ryan Nelson, a Trump appointee, issued a concurring opinion. Judge Morgan Christen, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dissented.
TheACLUwillappealtothe full 9th Circuit and, depending on the outcome, may ask the Supreme Court to take the case, Arulanantham said.
“If the decision stands, these longtime lawful residentswhowerewelcomedto the U.S. because their countrieswere mired in violence or natural disasters could be sent back,” the ACLU said. “Because they have several hundredthousandAmerican children — many of whom are school-aged — this decisionwould force those families to be torn apart.”