The action was brought by five Haitian immigrants, here legally under the Temporary Protected Status, unceremoniously, and likely unlawfully, ended so that they miraculously morphed from legal immigrants to illegal aliens, thus turning them from friends and neighbors to targets for ICE thugs to target, beat, and imprison. DC District Court Judge Ana Reyes said no.

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. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). 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.

Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, and proud puppy killer, Krisit Noem, however, believes she knows America better than George Washington.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take.

(In case the image is unclear, Noem states “I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. . . . WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.)

So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026.

Remember when Trump regurgitated the lie during the presidential debate that the Haitians were eating cats and dogs? Who are these “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” Noem and her liege despise?

Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) ¶ 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. ¶ 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. ¶ 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. ¶ 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id.

And what’s the government’s defense of its termination of TPS?

They claim that Secretary Noem’s decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law.

Upon review of the law and facts, Judge Reyes was unimpressed.

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).

What might otherwise be sloughed off as an assertion by a person woefully ignorant of American history, law, to which she’s entitled as an American endowed with freedom of speech no matter how stupid and racist, cannot be said of a person who utters such outrageous and offensive idiocy as an Officer of the United States of America.

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.

This is a distinction lost on Trump and those who owe their power to him. Their indulgence in foundational beliefs that play into the worst impulses of the angry and ignorant MAGA faithful are protected as individuals, but intolerable as government officers. It’s one thing for the angry idiot on the street to believe every bit of insane racist horseshit. It’s another thing entirely for a president or cabinet secretary to believe it, say it and act on it.

Judge Reyes isn’t having it.

By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for a Stay under 5 U.S.C. § 705.

Yet another reason why Noem has no business being in any position of government trust.