(overlapping chatter) ELSY: Joey, are you ready?

JOANNA: My family have been living like regular US citizens.

That was what I used to think.

But they will always bring up the T-P-S...

I was like T-P what?

(sax solo) (applause and cheering) ♪ CHORUS: Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.

♪ ♪ And she's always gone too long ♪ ♪ Anytime she goes away.

♪♪ MARIA: I never really understood why we had to go get our fingerprints and take a picture and get this card.

ELSY: Ms. Lamola, thank you for everything.

JUAN: Yes, thank you.

TEACHER: Talented young vocalist, he's very talented.

I'm hoping I keep him for the next four years.

ELSY: Yes, okay, yes.

MARIA: The first time was when we were renewing our TPS.

And it was my junior year.

And I remember that day I was really really mad like, I didn't want to wake up early, like why do I have to go?

And like my siblings didn't have to go?

And so it was just me and my parents.

And then they told me about... Like, "Oh, this is TPS, this is your status."

(overlapping chatter) SPEAKER: Alguien que me diga, ¿cuantos paises tienen TPS?

CROWD: 13!

SPEAKER: 13 paises.

Nicaragua!

Hope!

El Salvador!

Hope!

MacLean: There are hundreds of thousands of TPS holders who have been living in the United States for decades, have built families, have been paying a fee every 18 months to renew their status, have had to prove with substantial documentation that they don't have, you know, a single felony conviction and are really just trying to live their lives here after you know, different types of humanitarian disasters in their own countries.

PARTICIPANT: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

CROWD: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

SPEAKER: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

ALVARADO: As soon as we knew that Trump was gonna come into power, we began a campaign organizing TPS holders across the country.

It's actually people taking their own destiny in their own hands and saying, We're gonna fight back...

In the streets, you know, in the court of public opinion, we need to have a voice in Washington DC, but we also said we have to fight in the court system.

(overlapping chatter) ELSY: Ellos dijeron que porque no nos involucrabamos nosotros?

Al principio, yo no queria, pues, o sea, meterse con el gobierno es algo muy grande.

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

ELSY: Yo estoy en el litigio y venimos para sequir apoyando el Proyecto del TPS.

Estaba nerviosa.

Mi familia no sabia lo que estaba haciendo.

Mi hermana lo supo nada mas.

Y ella tenia un poco de miedo.

Porque,me decia, tu nombre y la de tu familia va estar en eso y que va pasar contigo?

Lo unico que dije es... Dios, tu sabes donde quieres que yo este.

Y si tu elegiste a mi para hacer esto, pues, vamos a salir adelante.

SPEAKER When I say "TPS," you say "Now."

TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: What to we want?

MacLean: The litigation was filed with nine TPS holders and five children of TPS holders who were born in the United States and are US citizens as the plaintiffs.

And they are from Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, and El Salvador.

We think we've got a pretty strong case that the decisions violated past practice, that there are some real legal concerns about what happened.

Today, we are here in force, with TPS holders and their families to ask a court to reject the government's position.

They intentionally and illegally relied on an exceedingly narrow interpretation of the TPS statute.

COURT OFFICER: Calling case C-181554, Ramos versus Nielsen.

Counsel please come to the podium and state your name for the record.

ARULANANTHAM: Good morning your Honor, Ahilan Arulanantham for the plaintiffs.

JUDGE CHEN: Alright.

Good morning.

ARULANANTHAM: The goal of the lawsuit is to protect TPS holders and their American children.

So one argument that we've made is that the administration's decisions here are motivated by racism.

JUDGE CHEN: What's your view about the comments that-that they're cited by the plaintiff, President's comments about [deleted] countries and comparing TPS countries to like Norway as an example, that it was within a short time, I think, within one week?

Before, I think the first decision was made.

MARTIN: We have a congressionally designated decision maker who was a cabinet secretary who makes these decisions.

For that reason, President's comments are really opposition's that are irrelevant to decision-making process here.

I must terminate TPS.

ARULANANTHAM: We allege that there is an unexplained departure from the prior practice.

So what was she looking at when she said that?

Was she looking at a memo?

And we're entitled to find out if there is such a memo.

MacLean: Literally days before we had to file our motion, the district judge agreed that given that this case was in part about what we alleged the racist motivations of this administration and terminating TPS, the government had an obligation to give us the draft documents and the internal communications about how they made these decisions.