A federal judge took a vicious shot at the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying it was showing “shameful cruelty” in trying to speed the end of a deportation amnesty for hundreds of Somali migrants after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer.
Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee to the court in Massachusetts, said she won’t be pushed into speeding up the case in front of her.
At issue is the grant of Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, which has allowed more than 700 migrants, many of whom would otherwise be here illegally, to remain while their home nation recovers from ongoing instability.
Judge Burroughs had blocked the end of TPS, then put the case on hold while the Supreme Court considered similar cases involving the Trump administration’s attempts to end TPS for Haiti and Syria.
The justices in late June ruled that courts should generally stay out of TPS decisions, unless there are major constitutional rights questions. And the justices said the administration didn’t have disqualifying racist motives in ending TPS.
More than a month later, the Somalia case has been revived in Judge Burroughs’ court, and the Trump administration asked for quick action in shutting down TPS.
Judge Burroughs, though, said she’s going to take some time before deciding whether to allow the Trump administration to cancel the status.
Homeland Security had complained that she was setting a “sluggish briefing schedule” that delayed its action. DHS said it didn’t want a “wind down period” to ease into the loss of status.
She fired back on Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of being callous about the lives in the balance.
“Leaving aside the shameful cruelty inherent in eschewing a ’wind down period’ for people under threat of deportation, many of whom are productive members of our communities who have lived here for years, built a life here, worked here and raised their families here, the court is mindful of both the Supreme Court ruling and the recent First Circuit judgment in this case,” Judge Burroughs wrote.
“That said, the court will also not abdicate its responsibility to make thoughtful, well-reasoned decisions after affording all parties a full and fair opportunity to be heard,” she wrote.
She said the plaintiffs challenging the Somalia TPS wind down have raised issues beyond those that were decided in the cases that went to the Supreme Court. She said they deserve a chance to argue them fully.
Similar cases involving other TPS grants are playing out in other courtrooms.
One of Judge Burroughs’ colleagues in Massachusetts, Judge Nathaniel Gorton, issued a ruling last month forbidding the Trump administration from canceling work permits for migrants from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine who are here under TPS.
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