Trump’s decision to end protections for Haiti and El Salvador immigrants is racially motivated, claims lawsuit

Administration has moved to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from the two nations

People protest the Trump administration ending Temporary Protected Status for people from El Salvador in New York City (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

Donald Trump’s racism against certain classes of immigrants invalidates his move to end protections for Haitians and El Salvadorans in the US, a new lawsuit alleges.

“President Trump has long made clear his dislike and disregard for Latino and Black immigrants”, a complaint filed in a Massachusetts district court argues.

The legal challenge, filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice on behalf of eight Haitian and El Salvadoran immigrants, contests the Trump administration’s decision to rescind a designation that has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from struggling nations to remain in America.

In recent months the administration announced that it would phase out Temporary Protected Status (TPS) grants that were instituted after earthquakes devastated Haiti and El Salvador. Some 300,000 people from those countries have secured TPS, according to the lawsuit.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the situations on the ground have improved enough in El Salvador and Haiti for people to return home. People from Haiti will see their statuses expire in June of 2019, with TPS set to end for Salvadorans in September of 2019.

While the legal challenge disputes the notion that either country has stabilised enough to justify ending TPS - noting subsequent natural disasters, “extreme gang violence” in El Salvador and Haiti remaining “economically stagnant” - it also argues that Mr Trump’s move to suspend TPS is “impermissibly tainted by racial animus” and “therefore cannot stand”.

Official justifications are “nothing but a thin and pretextual smokescreen for a racially discriminatory immigration agenda”, the lawsuit alleges.

It cites examples of Mr Trump’s incendiary immigration rhetoric, including his references to “rapists” and people “bringing crime” from Mexico and Latin American during the presidential campaign and instances in which he reportedly said African immigrants would not want to return to their “huts,” denigrated Haitians as all having AIDS and complained about immigrants from “s***hole countries” during a discussion about immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador.

“The animus directed towards Latino and Black immigrants is a clear and unfortunate thread ruling throughout President Trump’s statements - and his actualized by his Administration’s policies,” the complaint says.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on pending litigation. The White House has strenuously denied that Mr Trump holds racist views, as has the president himself.