A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt its plan to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
The program has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to legally live and work in the U.S. for decades. The ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen affects more than 300,000 immigrants enrolled in TPS from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) initiated a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration had violated constitutional protections those immigrants when he attempted to terminate the protection. The lawsuit suit also claims that the effort to end TPS “was motivated by intentional race- and national-origin-based animus against individuals from what President Trump has referred to as “shithole countries.”
The ruling is the latest blow to President Donald Trump’s egregious “efforts” to “revamp” the nation’s immigration laws.
Chen, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, felt and ruled that there was no immediate harm to the federal government if the plan to deport thousands was temporarily ceased. He did however write about the long-term damage to TPS holders, and the communities in which they live, if they’re forced to leave the country.
Chen cited a brief filed by 17 states that estimated they would lose $132 billion in gross domestic product, $5.2 billion in Social Security and Medicare contributions, and $733 million in employer turnover costs if TPS recipients are sent home.
He also focused on the thousands of U.S.-born children with parents who would have been deported. Something Trump completely ignored.
TPS holders are “faced with a Hobson’s choice of bringing their children with them (and tearing them away from the only country and community they have known) or splitting their families apart,” the judge wrote.
