Judge Blocks TPS cancellation
A federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans
to terminate the legal status of about 300,000 immigrants who fled violence and
disaster in Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador, currently covered by the
program that would be deported if it ends.
In a decision last Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen in San
Francisco found substantial evidence that the administration lacked “any
explanation or justification” to end the “temporary protected status” designations
for immigrants from those countries.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program,
announced it was ending TPS status for recipients from the four countries in late
2018 and throughout 2019, saying conditions in those countries had improved
and the migrants could safely return, even as the U.S. Department of State
warned against travel to those nations.
Based in San Francisco, Chen ruled in the case Ramos v. Nielsen, filed by the
ACLU Foundation of Southern California and other groups on behalf of nine
people with TPS status and five U.S. citizen children of TPS holders against the
Department of Homeland Security, headed by Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen.
Chen accused the Trump administration of acting with “racial animus,” citing
specific incidences for pages in his opinion. He also said the decision was a
“departure from the normal procedural sequence during the TPS decision-making
process.”
Omaha landlord served with almost 2,000 code violations
Some 500 refugees were packing a few days’ worth of clothes and relocating
from their north Omaha apartment complex on September 21, in the wake of a
massive, daylong city code inspection that uncovered multiple gas leaks and
unsanitary conditions.
City officials said they had to evacuate each of the 100 units at the Yale Park
Apartments at 34th and Lake Streets because of myriad problems, from unsafe
electrical circuits to natural gas leaks to the presence of mice, bedbugs, lice and
maggots.
The property owner denied that the conditions were as bad as the city described
and said he was helping the tenants by keeping rents low. The tenants are
refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
The City Planning Department sent out the first notice of property violations on
September 26, and a flurry have followed since, leaving owner and landlord Kay
Anderson sounding equal parts defiant and defeated as he decides what to do
with a property that’s been shut down and slapped with a total of 1,962 violations.
The number of violations dropped from a previous estimate of 2,500 because the
city decided not to count violations that applied to entire buildings — like roof or
gutter problems — against each individual unit, city officials said.
Deadlines for Registering to Vote and Applying for an Early Voting Ballot
October 19 – Deadline for mailed voter registrations to be postmarked; deadline
for voter registration at agencies; deadline for voter registration at DMV office;
deadline for voter registration by deputy registrar, 6:00 p.m.; deadline for online
voter registration, prior to midnight; deadline for voter registration form to be
delivered to the election office by someone other than the person registering and
for the person to be registered to vote in November 6.
October 26 – Deadline for in-person voter registration at election commission
office; deadline for requesting early voting ballots to be mailed.
Briefs
