A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday evening, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for over 300,000 migrants from Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Sudan.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that the program’s termination would result in “irreparable harm and great hardship” for its beneficiaries and their families. The TPS program protects migrants from countries enduring crises such as health epidemics, war or natural disasters.
Chen wrote that the administration must maintain TPS from those four countries as a lawsuit challenging the program’s termination is ongoing, CNN reported.
Over 1,000 TPS recipients from Sudan were set to lose their protections on Nov. 2, while others were going to lose their status next year.
Chen, during hearings last week, agreed that the Trump administration’s decision to end the program could reflect a racial bias against migrants from non-white nations, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Working Families United, a coalition of six unions representing immigrant workers, said in a statement to The Hill that the judge’s injunction shows “Trump’s move to terminate TPS was based in his racial motivations and not in any law or consideration of safety.”
“We won’t allow the Trump administration to strip away our members or strip away their rights,” Working Families United wrote. “We will keep organizing until we see action in every branch of government to protect workers and union members with TPS.”
Immigrants from 10 nations currently benefit from TPS, including 263,000 Salvadorans, 5,300 Nicaraguans, 46,000 Haitians and 1,000 Sudanese, the Chronicle reported. Since taking office, Trump has announced plans to terminate protected status for most who currently benefit from the program.
TPS beneficiaries have protested the administration’s plans to end the program for months, with dozens of truck drivers in Los Angeles stopping traffic last week to demonstrate against its revocation.
— Updated 10:45 p.m.