Another federal judge in San Francisco is voicing concern about the legality of an action being taken by the Trump administration, and suggesting that deporting hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Venezuelan migrants with legal status may just be racist.

At a hearing Monday in San Francisco, US District Judge Edward Chen heard from immigrant advocates who are seeking an emergency injunction to prevent the Trump administration from revoking the temporary protected status (TPS), or temporary parole, for as many as many as 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians — whom the administration would like to see deported as soon as possible.

President Trump has called the temporary asylum granted to Venezuelans "an invasion," and he infamously spoke of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio "eating the cats and the dogs" of their neighbors.

As the Chronicle reports, Judge Chen pointed to comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on TV, and her comments on an online video about Venezuelan gang members, saying she was "Getting these dirtbags off our streets and out of our country."

Toward the end of a three-hour hearing, Judge Chen reportedly asked the administration's lawyer, "Aren’t these statements indicia of a view that really engages in racial stereotyping?"

Justice Department attorney Sarah Vuong clarified that Noem was talking only about gang members.

Ahilan Arulanantham of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy represented a group of immigrants with temporary protected status, telling the judge, "They can’t just pretend that it’s national security," per the Chronicle. Arulanantham added, "There’s not even a shred of evidence that a TPS holder is a member of this gang."

Judge Chen has not yet ruled on the request from the immigrants' lawyers.

The action by the administration could revoke protections for some 350,000 Venezuelans as of April 2, and an additional 250,000 later this year. Another half- million Haitians are TPS holders as well, with those statuses expiring this year.

Trump has previously talked about supporting legal pathways to citizenship, of which TPS is one. TPS holders are granted parole based on conditions in their country that make living there difficult or impossible, including political upheaval and natural disasters.

Haiti remains in a state of chaos following multiple natural disasters and a political assassination; and Venezuela remains in a state of political crisis after an election last year that appeared to have been rigged to reelect authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, despite evidence that his opponent had actually won the most votes. Poverty in the country remains "shockingly high" as the BBC notes, which has led to the emigration of more than 7 million Venezuelans.

The hearing in San Francisco on Monday comes after several tense weeks in which federal judges in multiple jurisdictions have called into question various actions being taken, with a bulldozer's precision, against immigrants and federal workers alike.

US District Judge William Alsup, based in SF, ruled two weeks ago that the firings of probationary workers in federal agencies was a "sham," and was not directed by the heads of agencies — but by one of Trump's new lackeys, Charles Ezell, the Acting Director of the the Office of Personnel Management. Alsup ordered all the workers reinstated, and today the administration sought emergency relief from that order at the Supreme Court.

Washington DC-based federal Judge James Boasberg rankled the administration earlier this month when he ordered a flight containing 200 Venezuelans, bound for El Salvador, to turn around. The administration claimed that the plane was full of "gang members," and Trump subsequently called Boasberg, a George W. Bush appointee, a "radical Left Lunatic."

Calls for Boasberg to be impeached by Trump and others prompted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement last week condemning such rhetoric.

Newsweek reported today that Republican Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas continues to move toward trying to impeach Judge Boasberg, despite Roberts' comments.

Top image: A view of the Phillip Burton Federal Building on August 23, 2021 in San Francisco, California. The U.S. Capitol Police have announced plans to open two field offices in California and Florida following the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and an increase in threats to members of Congress in these states. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)