NEW YORK _ Haitian and Salvadoran refugees sued President Donald Trump, claiming his administration's decision to end protections that allowed them to stay in the U.S. was "tainted by racial animus."
The lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court, seeks to block the administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status program that allowed thousands of people from countries experiencing a humanitarian or environmental crisis to live legally in the U.S.
"President Trump has made no secret of his racist views," said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, which filed the lawsuit. "The administration's decision to terminate TPS for El Salvador and Haiti manifests these discriminatory views."
Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the office doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The program has been in place for Salvadorans since the country was struck by a series of devastating earthquakes in 2001. Haitians won the protection after a 2010 earthquake.
In January, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the administration was ending the program for Salvadoran immigrants, giving them until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave or be deported. The Trump administration months earlier terminated protection for Haitians with a July 22, 2019, deadline.
According to the group, there are 242,900 Salvadorans and 93,500 Haitians living in the U.S. under the program. The Salvadorans have 192,700 children who were born in the U.S., while the Haitians have 27,000 children who are U.S. citizens, according to the complaint.
"These individuals have homes, jobs and families," the group said in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs include Juan Carlos Vidal, a Salvadoran from Revere, Mass., who worked his way from a kitchen assistant to owning four restaurants in the Boston area after getting the protection in 2001. The suit cites comments Trump made, including his assertion that African immigrants who have seen America would never "go back to their huts."
"The animus directed toward Latino and Black immigrants is a clear and unfortunate thread running through President Trump's statements _ and is actualized by his Administration's policies, such as the ones challenged by this lawsuit," the group said.
