Previous administrations had opted to extend the protections for most of the countries involved every few years when they came up for review, but the Trump administration has moved toward ending protections for the majority of immigrants under the program, arguing that the initial conditions that necessitated them are no longer present. The judge on Wednesday granted a request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily bars the administration from ending a program that allowed 300,000 people from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador to stay in the U.S. TPS protects migrants in the United States from countries that have been hit by dire conditions, such as epidemics, war or natural disaster.
– The Department of Justice is condemning a judge's ruling that blocks the Trump administration from ending protections for 300,000 immigrants living and working in the United States. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction Wednesday that bars the administration from ending a program that allowed people from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua, and El Salvador to stay in the US temporarily, the AP reports. The Temporary Protected Status program, or TPS, granted temporary protection to people because of war, epidemics, or natural disasters in their home countries, per CNN. The ruling comes in a lawsuit that contends the administration improperly changed the rules for the program out of racism. DOJ spokesman Devin O'Malley says the ruling "usurps the role of the executive branch" and that the administration did nothing improper. In the ruling, Judge Edward Chen said ending the protections could cause great suffering and harm to families. He also noted there's evidence that President Trump harbors animus toward "non-white, non-European" aliens. He cited Trump's remarks disparaging Mexicans, Muslims, and certain nations. "The issues are at least serious enough to preserve the status quo," Chen wrote in his ruling.