Washington DC [US], August 2 : A federal judge ruled against US President Donald Trump's administration plans to end protections from deportation for citizens of Nepal, Nicaragua and Honduras, barring their removal while the case continues, The Hill reported.
San Francisco-based US District Judge Trina Thompson agreed the plaintiffs had shown there was sufficient racial animus behind the decision and that the Trump administration had failed to undertake an "objective review of the country conditions" before ending protections.
"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. "The Court disagrees."
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepal in June and for Nicaragua and Honduras in July. Each country was initially designated after natural disasters, but the protections can also be offered to people unable to be deported to their home country due to civil unrest.
The moves would require 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans who have been in the country for roughly 25 years to leave the county by September. Some 7,000 Nepalese citizens were also set to lose protections in just days, as per The Hill.
Thompson reviewed a number of prior comments from Trump as well as Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, including comments from the secretary referring to migrants as criminals and gang members, and the president stating that migrants were "poisoning the blood of our country."
"Indeed, code words may demonstrate discriminatory intent," she wrote, The Hill quoted. "Color is neither a poison nor a crime."
Thompson said the DHS failed to do the fulsome review required to end TPS, determining the Trump administration did not consider conditions beyond recovery from the hurricanes that rocked the Central American countries and the earthquake that sparked the designation for Nepal, as per The Hill.
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