Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Remark Comes Back To Haunt Him In New Immigration Lawsuit

Immigrants and activists protest near the White House to demand that the Department of Homeland Security extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 195,000 Salvadorans on January 8, 2018 in Washington, DC.... Immigrants and activists protest near the White House to demand that the Department of Homeland Security extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 195,000 Salvadorans on January 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. The US government announced Monday the end of a special protected status for about 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants, a move that threatens with deportation tens of thousands of well-established families with children born in the United States. / AFP PHOTO / Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS (Photo credit should read ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A group of immigrants whose Temporary Protected Status was revoked by President Trump, and their U.S. citizen children, filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday afternoon at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Lawyers on the case tell TPM that the immigrant parents, many of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades, are challenging the abrupt cancelation of their status as arbitrary and a violation of their right to due process. They are also arguing, citing President Trump’s infamous “shithole” comment and other disparaging remarks about immigrants, that the administration’s decision was unconstitutionally based on racial animus.

Over the past several decades, the U.S. has granted Temporary Protected Status to hundreds of thousands of people from an array of countries that have been in crisis—whether from war, natural disaster, or severe economic strife. Since taking office, Trump has terminated those protections for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan, putting thousands of long-time residents at risk of deportation.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) are suing the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of a group of former TPS-holders now at risk of deportation and their U.S. citizen children who would be left behind.

As with many other lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies, the President’s own words have come back to haunt him. Specifically, the lawsuit cites Trump’s reported characterization of TPS-holders as hailing from “shithole countries” to argue that the decision “arises from the Trump Administration’s repeatedly-expressed racism toward non-white, non-European people from other countries.” The lawsuit also references Trump’s frequent recitation of the lyrics to the song “The Snake,” which the President employs as an allegory about welcoming dangerous immigrants and refugees into the country.

In February, a group of Haitian and Salvadoran immigrants filed the first lawsuit challenging the cancelation of TPS, arguing, like the case in California, that the administration’s decision was racially motivated. The California case is the first to challenge the termination of protections for immigrants from all four impacted countries, and the first filed on behalf of the more than 270,000 U.S. citizen children who have at least one parent with TPS, who the case argues would be irreparably harmed by their parents’ deportation.

Read the lawsuit here:

Latest DC

Notable Replies

  1. the President’s own words have come back to haunt him

    We’ve located the shithole.

  2. I understand that there is a fear in the immigration community that at least some ICE officials have created two piles of files, one containing files of applicants from “shithole” countries and the other containing applicants from whiter countries. Doing so is illegal but some officials feel empowered. Not many people from Norway are being deported, but folks from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East are being shown the door in increasing numbers.

  3. Avatar for mymy mymy says:

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…

  4. Good. Fat Nixon’s words will be are his undoing. They were when trying to stop visitors and even legal residents from so-called terrorist countries, they will be his undoing for DACA and for TPS and they absolutely will be when Mueller drops his indictments.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

30 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for valgalky23 Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for jootjoint Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for sysprog Avatar for mymy Avatar for epicurus Avatar for irasdad Avatar for danny Avatar for ottnott Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for benthere Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for tsp Avatar for spencersmom Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for asturcot Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for qwerty23 Avatar for jwbuho

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: