YES!!! JUDGE EVISCERATES NOEM IN TPS TAKEDOWN!!
In a *scathing* 83-page opinion (included for Notes from the Front members) U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes absolutely *pummels* Noem for her handling of, well, everything, although this particular opinion is about the administration trying to take away the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Haitians. I’m going to jump to the end first, because it is just *so* delightful!
“There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side – or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side – or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).
Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
OUCH!!!
Now let’s back up, because the very beginning of Judge Reyes’ opinion and order is almost as good as the conclusion:
“On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.” More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually.”
The thing is, by cancelling TPS status for Haitians the administration is literally telling them to return to or get sent back to a region that is ON OUR OWN GOVERNMENT’S “DO NOT TRAVEL TO” LIST!! In fact, that advisory includes “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”
One of the most beautiful things about this opinion is that the Judge, as I have repeatedly said that they would do, and are doing, uses Noem’s *own words* to hang her.
For example, “Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies”. Judge Reyes even includes screenshots of Noem’s own social media posts!
She also provides a fairly lengthy footnote going into the etymology of the term, and I apologize for using it here but I quote, “shithole”. (That’s footnote 6 for you Notes from the Front members.)
And then there’s this lovely section:
“To recap, Secretary Noem’s national interest analysis involved cohorts that she cannot say include any current Haitian TPS holders: individuals who are not in the country, individuals in the country unlawfully, individuals in an over-inclusive database, and individuals already subject to exclusion from the TPS statute. This is not a minor detail. Because her national interest analysis focuses only on cohorts that do not involve Haitian TPS holders, there is no reasoned basis to believe that terminating Haiti’s TPS designation will address any of the concerns she raised. Quite the opposite, since turning around 353,000 lawful immigrants into unlawful ones overnight will further burden the very immigration-enforcement system she claims is already over-burdened. This is the type of irrational decision-making the APA prohibits.”
In fact, Judge Reyes mentions Noem, by name, and takes her down, in many, many, many paragraphs.
It’s wonderful.
Notes from the Front members: Judge Reyes’ 83-page takedown of Noem is in your inbox now.
NOTE: To preserve original source documents before they can be tampered with, and to protect myself from claims of improper republication, and hey, the trolls, I make documents I find (and at times purchase out of my own pocket) privately available to Notes from the Front members. Often these are non-public documents, others may be public but I find the source originals for you and include explanations and insights based on my decades of law practice and as a law professor, with a side of snark. ;~)
You can join below for immediate access to this and other documents, the archives, and our private chat for $5 a month.
https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/yes-judge-eviscerates-noem-in-tps
Source