Appeals court overrules Biden judge who invoked race to block Trump immigration policy

The most liberal federal appeals court in America has overruled a Biden judge who tried to slow down President Trump’s immigration agenda.

The 3-0 ruling from a panel of the Ninth Circuit allows the White House to begin stripping Temporary Protected Status from over 63,000 immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal, exposing them to deportation from the United States.

Temporary Protected Status

The Trump administration has stressed the “temporary” and contingent nature of the humanitarian status, which provides work permits and deportation protections to people fleeing dangerous conditions in their native lands.

In their appeal, the Trump administration’s lawyers cited a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that allowed Trump to strip TPS from Venezuelans.

Immigration lawyers rejected the comparison, saying TPS holders from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal have a longer history in the U.S. than Venezuelans who received the status under the Biden administration.

Despite its title, thousands of immigrants have been living with TPS protections for years. The U.S. extended TPS protections to Nicaragua and Honduras in the 1998, and Nepal was added in 2015.

After the Trump administration revoked TPS protections for people from those countries, a Biden-appointed judge, Trina Thompson, blocked the move until at least November in an extraordinary ruling that accused the administration of being “motivated by racial animus.”

“The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek,” the judge wrote. “Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees.”

The Justice Department has indicated it will seek a new judge, blasting Thompson for “extreme rhetoric with no bearing on this case.”

White House celebrates

The appeals court’s ruling was just two pages long and provided little explanation. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, condemned the decision.

“The court’s failure to provide any reasoning for its decision, including why this was an ‘emergency,’ falls far short of what due process requires, and our clients deserve,” said Arulanantham said. “The decision simply sanctions the government’s power grab, exposing tens of thousands of people to illegal detention and deportation. They deserve better than what this court has done today.”

The Ninth Circuit is known for being liberal. The panel of three judges who voted unanimously to block Thompson consisted of Michael Hawkins, a Clinton appointee, Consuelo Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee, and Eric Miller, a Trump appointee.

As a consequence of their decision, Nepalis could face immediate deportation because their status was scheduled to expire on August 5. Nicaraguans and Hondurans are set to lose their TPS status on September 8.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the appeals court’s ruling “another huge legal victory for the Trump Administration.”

“Temporary Protected Status was always meant to be just that: Temporary,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades while allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigners into the country without proper vetting. This unanimous decision will help restore integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”

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