On New Year’s Eve, a federal judge in California criticized DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for her decision to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua. The judge found the decision to be “pretextual” and suggested that “racial animus” might have influenced the “arbitrary and capricious” action.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, appointed in 2022 by President Joe Biden, issued a partial summary judgment on Wednesday. She began her ruling against the Trump administration with a reminder: “Unilateral power has never been American.”

Concluding her decision, Judge Thompson underscored that President Donald Trump, along with his cabinet members like Noem, is “not above the law.” She referenced the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States to make her point.

Judge Thompson emphasized the importance of accountability by stating, “The rule of law demands that when executive officials exceed their authority, they must be held to account.” She highlighted the role of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in ensuring government transparency, public involvement, fair rulemaking, and judicial review of agency actions.

Judge Thompson deemed Noem’s decision to end TPS for immigrants from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua as “arbitrary and capricious” under the APA. She noted that Noem appeared more focused on the desired outcomes than on adhering to legal standards.

“The Court denies Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ claim that the Secretary’s decision was arbitrary and capricious because her decision was preordained and pretextual rather than based on an objective review of the country conditions as required by the TPS statute and the APA,” Thompson added.

The judge further noted that the lead plaintiffs in the class action case — including parents with children who have special needs — have been in the U.S. for many years, before the Trump administration tried to “end the purportedly broken TPS program.”

The judge characterized the administration’s blitz to wind down TPS designations as fueled by “racist” fear-mongering, crediting “substantial evidence” submitted by the plaintiffs for raising a “genuine dispute of material fact as to whether the decisions to vacate and terminate were based on racial, ethnic, and/or national origin animus.”

“Such animus can reasonably be shown from the statements made by Secretary Noem and/or President Trump alone,” Thompson said, before delivering an uppercut.

“The statements of the Secretary and other officials in the administration which repeatedly characterize immigrants as invaders upsetting the foundation of the country perpetuates the racist ‘replacement theory’ which stands for the idea that non-white immigrants will ‘replace’ the white race and undermine the nation’s ‘white’ foundation,” the order went on. “The President and Secretary’s policies and policy goals—including the decisions to terminate TPS—promote the debunked and racist ‘replacement theory.’”

There’s “substantial evidence,” Thompson added, that Noem’s “termination decisions, which rested on false and negative stereotypes entirely ‘divorced from any factual context,’ manifested discriminatory intent.”

According to CBS News, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blasted Thompson’s “lawless and activist order” purporting to “usurp” Trump’s “constitutional authority” by, in effect, making a “temporary designation” indefinite and closer to “permanent” protected status.

“Under the previous administration Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation,” McLaughlin reportedly said. “TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades. Given the improved situation in each of these countries, now is the right time to conclude what was always intended to be a temporary designation.”