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Citing Donald Trump’s racist “shithole countries” slur, a group of plaintiffs representing thousands of immigrants from Honduras and Nepal have sued the Trump administration over termination of temporary protections that have allowed them to live and work in the U.S., some for decades now.
Under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), people fleeing natural disasters and other dangerous conditions have been able to live here, and the status has been renewable until conditions improve in the protected immigrants’ countries. But despite conditions not improving in TPS nations like Haiti and El Salvador, Trump officials such as White House aide Stephen Miller successfully pushed for an end to TPS, telling beneficiaries to either find a way to legalize their status—for most, there isn’t one—or leave.
TPS recipients from Honduras and Nepal are now hoping for an outcome similar to that in another lawsuit against the Trump administration last year, in which a federal judge, also citing Trump’s “shithole” remark, blocked termination of protections for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan. There were “serious questions as to whether a discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor,” Judge Edward Chen said at the time.
These protections were killed because of racism, pure and simple. "We bring evidence the Trump administration has repeatedly denigrated non-white non-European immigrants, and reviewed TPS designations with a goal of removing such non-white non-European immigrants from the United States,” Minju Cho of Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Los Angeles said regarding the latest lawsuit.
Keeping TPS in place will also prevent yet another family separation crisis. "I'm taking part in this lawsuit not just for myself and my daughter but for everyone who would be hurt by our TPS being taken away,” said plaintiff Donaldo Posadas Caceres, who is originally from Honduras. “Forcing our children to choose between the life they have here or a country they don't know is unfair.”
While TPS will ensure that families that have been woven into the fabric of communities all across the U.S. can stay right where they are, what they ultimately need are permanent protections. At least 1,000 people, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, rallied in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to support putting TPS families onto a path to legal status.
"We are a nation that turns peril into promise," Ocasio-Cortez said at a demonstration outside the White House. "We are here to make sure that all TPS recipients become permanent members of the United States of America … we are fighting for the longstanding principle … that the people who build this country, stay in this country.”
Then-incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi said shortly before the new Congress was sworn in that the Democratic House would prioritize protections for both TPS and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. In a tweet during the D.C. action supporting TPS families, Rep. Nydia Velazquez said that she is “working with my colleagues in congress to re-introduce an improved version of my American Promise Act, which would grant a path to citizenship to immigrants with TPS protection.”