{"id":59788,"date":"2025-11-19T05:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59788\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:04:08","slug":"judge-hears-arguments-against-the-termination-of-tps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59788\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge hears arguments against the termination of TPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, nursing student Jhony Silva folded clothes to quiet his anxiety. In a few hours, Silva\u2019s attorneys would challenge the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s July decision that terminated Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua who had fled to the U.S. to escape natural disasters.<\/p>\n

Silva is among more than 60,000 people whose lives hang in the balance. Silva arrived in the United States from Honduras at the age of 12 after Hurricane Mitch<\/a> devastated Central America in 1998. He remembers little of his home country and has made a life here, studying to become a registered nurse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A recent lawsui<\/a>t, filed by ACLU NorCal and partnering law firms challenged the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status and claim that DHS did so unlawfully. As it stands right now, those left without protected status will have to decide between uprooting their lives to face tenuous conditions in their home countries or remaining rooted in the U.S. where they could face\u00a0 severe legal consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside Judge Trisha Thompson\u2019s San Francisco courtroom \u2013 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California \u2013 on Tuesday morning, an audience filled the wooden benches for the hearing: National TPS Alliance v. Noem. They sat shoulder-to-shoulder, many wearing TPS alliance pins from the advocacy organization National TPS Alliance. Others held white roses adorned with blue ribbons \u2014\u00a0the flower a symbol of peace and the color referencing the Nicaragua and Honduras flags. Silva made his way to an empty seat and sat down, nervously tapping his leg.<\/p>\n

Thompson made the stakes clear; if the ACLU and its allies could make a strong case that San Francisco had jurisdiction, she would be able to make a summary judgment on whether or not TPS will be restored for people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. Thompson had pored over all of the submitted evidence, she told the attorneys for the ACLU and DHS. \u201cI probably haven\u2019t slept in three days due to the academic exercise you both gave me,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe ACLU NorCal attorney, Emi MacLean stands before a crowd outside of the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for both sides then took to the podium and began presenting their cases. The ACLU attorney, Emi MacLean challenged the termination of TPS on grounds that the government had failed to review the safety of the countries that TPS recipients risked being deported to before rescinding the status \u2014\u00a0a departure from decades of legal precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made a decision based on stale information,\u201d said the ACLU attorney. If the Secretary of Homeland Security had looked, MacLean\u2019s co-council attorney Jessica Bansal said, they would have found that both Honduras and Nicaragua remained fundamentally unsafe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bansal said, the government published numerous highly racialized and publicized statements, to justify the termination of TPS. One public statement referred to TPS holders as \u201ccriminals\u201d and \u201cInvaders.\u201d Another highlighted statement said that allowing TPS holders to stay, \u201cencourages a mass migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the next four hours, both the ACLU and DHS attorneys fought to answer Judge Thompson\u2019s questions, as the audience gradually dwindled. At one point, the judge questioned the government attorney\u2019s claim that discretion \u201csolely\u201d rests with the head of the Department of Homeland Security. \u201cThe statute says solely?\u201d Thompson asked. The attorney admitted, \u201cno it does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson ultimately denied the government\u2019s motion to dismiss the case, but it will take longer to reach a final ruling.<\/p>\n

MacLean\u2019s attitude was hopeful as she exited the courtroom. \u201cWe were able to present powerful evidence that the secretary\u2019s decision to terminate TPS was illegal, predetermined and not based on what the statute needs them to be based on,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are hopeful that the court will recognize the illegality of these actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AWomen stand outside of the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco to protest the termination of TPS. Photo by Sage Rios Mace. <\/p>\n

Outside the courthouse, supporters chanted, \u201cEl pueblo unido jam\u00e1s ser\u00e1 vencido,\u201d (the people united will never be defeated) as Silva and his legal team emerged.<\/p>\n

Silva said he was worried about how the threat of deportation was impacting his nine year-old child. \u201cI couldn\u2019t hide what is happening to my kid but I think he understands more than enough because he\u2019s been anxious,\u201d he told Mission Local.<\/p>\n

\"AJhony Silva stands before a crowd of organizers and community members gathered in solidarity against the termination of TPS. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.<\/p>\n

In the background, music from a Los Angeles Central American band that had traveled to attend the hearing could still be heard, as well as chants from the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very powerful to be a part of this movement.\u201d Silva said, as he stepped up to address the crowd. \u201cI have faith that the judge will rule in our favor because we all deserve better.\u201d He looked out at the crowd with tears in his eyes. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be living like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, nursing student Jhony Silva folded clothes to quiet his anxiety. In a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2871,2872,14,101,103,102,104,106,105,36349],"class_list":["post-59788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-ice","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-tps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}