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Plaintiffs who successfully sued the Trump administration over its decision to terminate protections for thousands of immigrants here legally “were helped by hundreds of pages of memos and emails,” the Los Angeles Times reports, “that revealed the Trump administration’s struggle to articulate why the humanitarian protections were no longer necessary.”
But in fact, a deeper look into the administration’s paperwork trail really reinforces what we already knew: that government officials and others knew conditions in Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designated countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan had not improved, but ended the protections anyway.
In Haiti’s case, officials concluded that conditions there had failed to improve, recommending “that protections be extended for 18 months,” the Los Angeles Times continued. But one of the officials charged with revising a draft memo on Haitian TPS was senior advisor Robert Law, who had previously worked for an anti-immigrant hate group. “He responded that the draft was overwhelmingly weighted for extension, ‘which I do not think is the conclusion we are looking for.’”
That was already after officials had reportedly snooped for “negative information” about Haitian TPS recipients in order to call them criminals and justify deporting them. The cake was baked for Haitian TPS, and administration officials announced the end of protections for 50,000 Haitians last November.
"Under the TPS statute,” another document on Sudanese protections read, “if you determine that the statutory conditions supporting a country's designation for TPS continue to exist, you must extend the TPS designation for an additional period of 6, 12, or 18 months. The review of conditions in Sudan indicates that it remains unsafe for individuals to return to Sudan." The administration went ahead and terminated protections for Sudanese TPS recipients anyway, despite internal debate that clearly favored TPS extension.
“This memo reads like one person who strongly supports extending TPS for Sudan wrote everything up to the recommendation section,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Francis Cissna complained in another document, “and then someone who opposes extension snuck up behind the first guy, clubbed him over the head, pushed his senseless body out of the way, and finished the memo. Am I missing something?” You tell us, Frank, especially after that little get-together you recently had with another hate group, connections which weren’t lost in court.
In his ruling last week, Judge Edward Chen said “there were ‘serious questions as to whether a discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor’ in the administration’s decision. It was clear in another document, where former Trump official Elaine Duke “wrote ... that ‘the TPS program must end for these countries soon … this conclusion is the result of an America first view of the TPS decision,’” of course “America First” having a long history as a rallying cry of white supremacy, and now a rallying cry of the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, TPS recipients are celebrating Chen’s decision. While the block is temporary as the case continues to play out, the ruling could buy them more valuable time here to continue pushing for permanent protections through Congress. “I’m happy to hear that there is still a possibility that the TPS could be extended,” said Elva Castillo, a Nicaraguan beneficiary. “It gives us TPS holders hope. But it is important that we keep up the fight.”