Immigrants sue over temporary protections

WASHINGTON—Immigrants from four countries sued the Trump administration Monday over its decision to end their temporary protected status. Lawyers filed the suit in San Francisco federal court on behalf of nine immigrants and five children from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. Thousands of immigrants from those countries fled to the United States, where they have lived and raised their families for years, after their homes were ravaged by natural disaster or war. U.S. officials granted them permission to stay in the country temporarily. The lawsuit cites President Donald Trump’s reportedly negative comments about Haiti and some African countries in January as evidence that racial animus motivated his decision to end the temporary program. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen concluded in January that El Salvador had received significant aid to recover from the 2001 earthquake that prompted the immigration allowance. She decided it was time to send nearly 200,000 immigrants still in the United States back to their home country. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration’s decision violated the constitutional rights of people with temporary protected status, as well as the rights of their U.S. citizen children.