A federal judge hearing a challenge to President Donald Trump's order to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation says he cannot ignore Trump's "drumbeat" of "vicious" anti-immigrant comments.
"In this country, in over 230 years, this is not ordinary," Judge Nicholas Garaufis said Tuesday during a hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y. "It's extreme, it's recurring, it's vicious."
The judge gave no timetable for making a ruling.
Trump has called Mexicans rapists and murderers, and reportedly said Haitians have AIDS. He also allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as "s---hole" countries.
A number of plaintiffs are suing to stop Trump from eliminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants known as Dreamers who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
Many Dreamers have jobs, attend school and own businesses; some have served in the military.
Trump has given Congress until March 5 to weigh in on the DACA issue.
The president has said he backs a path toward citizenship, but demands curbs on legal immigration and money for a wall along the Mexican border. Many Democrats want to address DACA as a separate immigration issue.
