Left: U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California). Right: Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at the Nashville International Airport, Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV).
A California federal judge on New Year's Eve bashed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for deciding in a "pretextual" way that some 60,000 Honduran, Nepali, and Nicaraguan immigrants should be stripped of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), finding it "plausible" that "racial animus" explains the "arbitrary and capricious" behavior.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, a 2022 appointee of then-President Joe Biden, began her Wednesday partial summary judgment ruling against the Trump administration by noting, "Unilateral power has never been American."
At the end of the ruling, the judge likewise emphasized that President Donald Trump "is not above the law" — quoting the Supreme Court's 2024 immunity decision in Trump v. United States — and "Neither are his cabinet officials," such as Noem.
"The rule of law demands that when executive officials exceed their authority, they must be held to account. The Administrative Procedures Act [APA] ensures government accountability by making agencies transparent, require public participation, setting fair rulemaking standards, and allowing courts to review actions for legality and rationality," Thompson said. "Our laws should not favor the loud and powerful simply because of their positions. Yet, for too long, our laws have overlooked the quiet truths—truths carried in the margins, truths lived but never spoken aloud."
The judge said Noem's move to terminate TPS for Honduran, Nepali, and Nicaraguan immigrants was "arbitrary and capricious" under the APA because the DHS secretary was more concerned with outcomes than complying with the law.
"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."