Ramos v. Nielsen
Ramos v. Nielsen
At issue in this case is the Administration’s termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for individuals from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration relief that allows individuals from designated countries to live and work legally in the U.S. if they cannot return safely to their country of origin due to armed conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances. Most TPS recipients came to the U.S. at a young age, lived here most of their lives, and have strong ties to this country. In March 2018 nine TPS holders and five U.S. Citizen children of TPS holders sued the Department of Homeland Security to stop the Administration from implementing the terminations. ADL filed an amicus brief in this case in support of the 9th Circuit’s preliminary injunction temporarily halting the policy from being carried out. ADL’s brief explains that while there is no constitutional protection requiring the U.S. to afford temporary protected status, there is a clear constitutional prohibition on discrimination in the implementation of government policies based on race, national origin and other protected characteristics, and that ample evidence of racial animus by the Administration exists in this case. ADL’s brief discusses how the troubling evidence of animus against non-white and non-European immigrants is worsened only by the evidence that biased rhetoric has influenced actual policy. As an organization with vast experience responding to all forms of discrimination and hate, ADL recognized the anti-immigrant nature of the TPS terminations and the need for context and analysis to be provided to the court.