JUDGE BLOCKS ENDING OF TPS STATUS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an immigration status granted to citizens of certain countries that have experienced various emergencies, such as natural disasters or civil wars, allowing them to seek refuge in the U.S. and be allowed to work.  Currently citizens from 10 countries may have this status, but over the last year the Trump administration announced it was ending TPS for citizens of four countries, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, because the emergencies that had justified giving them refuge in the U.S. had ended.  On October 3, 2018, a federal judge in California blocked the administration from ending the TPS status of citizens from these countries.  There were basically two reasons for the decision, one being that the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act that deals with the rules agencies are supposed to follow before they make new rules or change existing rules.  The second reason for the ruling was that there was evidence of discriminatory motive, similar to the arguments made in the lawsuits challenging the administration's efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  It is likely that these issues will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.