A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end deportation protections for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, who are allowed to live and work in the US legally under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
A day before the TPS was set to lapse, US judge Ana Reyes said the Department of Homeland Security boss doesn't have the facts or law on her side.
"Plaintiffs charge that Secretary [Kristi] Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely," Reyes wrote.
The administration has argued that TPS schemes attract illegal immigration and have long been abused and extended by Democrats.
TPS prevents US officials from deporting immigrants to countries deemed unsafe whether from natural disasters, armed conflicts or other crises.
