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

In her partial summary judgment issued Wednesday against the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson—appointed in 2022 by President Joe Biden—began by asserting that “Unilateral power has never been American.”

Concluding her ruling, Judge Thompson reiterated the principle that President Donald Trump “is not above the law,” referencing the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Trump v. United States. She added, “Neither are his cabinet officials,” including Secretary Noem.

“The rule of law mandates accountability when executive officials exceed their authority,” Thompson declared. She highlighted how the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) safeguards government accountability by ensuring transparency, public participation, fair rulemaking, and legal oversight. “Our laws should not favor the powerful due to their status. For too long, our laws have ignored the quiet truths—truths lived but rarely voiced,” she noted.

Judge Thompson argued that Noem’s decision to end TPS for the immigrants was “arbitrary and capricious” under the APA, emphasizing that the DHS secretary prioritized outcomes over legal compliance.

“The Court denies the Defendants’ motion to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ claim, finding that the Secretary’s decision was preordained and pretextual, failing to objectively assess the country conditions as required by the TPS statute and the APA,” Thompson concluded.

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.”