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Shrill, but useful — useful because she is so shrill — Kristi Noem has elicited from a federal judge a valuable 83-page tutorial. The secretary of homeland security, her mind as closed as a clam, will not benefit from Judge Ana C. Reyes’s explanation of immigration law. Other Americans will.

On Dec. 1, Noem shared on X this thought: “I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” who “slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” This was three days after Noem officially “determined” that she would terminate, effective Feb. 3, temporary protected status for about 353,000 Haitians who have found refuge here.

Last Monday, Reyes, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the nation’s second-most important court, blocked Noem’s order. Reyes said the process that produced it was so riddled with lawlessness that the plaintiffs would likely prevail in a trial.

The five Haitian plaintiffs include a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, a national bank’s software engineer, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, a college economics major and a full-time registered nurse. No leeches joined the suit.

The Trump administration of course argues (as it does regarding the president’s declaration of an “emergency” justifying tariffs) that Noem’s exercise of discretion is not subject to judicial review. Reyes, however, eviscerates what she calls Noem’s claim to “unbounded discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants.” Reyes says her court would indeed lack jurisdiction were the plaintiffs challenging Noem’s determination, but they are challenging how she made it.

Reyes says Congress meticulously detailed a temporary protected status process “to replace executive whim with statutory predictability.” Noem’s chaotic rationalizations for her action scream that they are pretexts for a predetermined policy. (She has terminated all 12 TPS country designations that have reached her desk. Reyes calls this unprecedented in the 35 years since the TPS program was established.)

Naturally, Noem says ending TPS will serve “national security” by somehow making it easier for “federal officials” to assess threats from “aliens attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.” Reyes dryly says: “But TPS holders are already in the country.” And, Reyes notes, Noem’s withdrawal of TPS would burden the immigration system by turning the 353,000 “lawful immigrants into unlawful ones overnight.”

Noem ignored the statute’s stipulation that she review conditions in Haiti “after” consulting with appropriate government agencies. Instead, Noem made her decision, then conducted a contemptuously perfunctory consultation. The law requires consultations with other agencies — plural. Her consultation consisted of a Department of Homeland Security staffer sending a two-sentence email to a State Department staffer, whose one-sentence reply, 53 minutes later, said Noem’s policy is fine.