(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The federal judge who blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for 350,000 Haitians has deep ties to Democratic politics, including donating tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden and other left-wing campaigns.
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, appointed by Biden in 2022, has contributed $38,000 to Democratic candidates and causes since 2008. She previously volunteered for Biden’s campaign and maxed out her contributions, in addition to working pro bono for refugees, according to Fox News.
Reyes drew sharp criticism from conservative commentators after she claimed Monday that it was “substantially likely” that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end TPS for Haitians was motivated by “hostility toward nonwhite immigrants.”
She ruled Noem’s order violated the Administrative Procedure Act, though the Trump administration has vowed to appeal.
Critics online said Reyes’s ruling was far from surprising, given her past ties to the political left.
Born in Uruguay, Reyes bragged about her work representing asylum seekers during a 2017 speech at the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, where she received the Woman Lawyer of the Year award.
She also thanked attorneys at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, calling it an honor to fight “for the rights of refugees in the United States.”
Reyes is the first openly gay federal judge in D.C. and confirmed that she provided legal guidance to Biden’s 2020 campaign on election law issues.
Her donations have gone to ActBlue and Jon Ossoff’s campaign, according to FEC records reported by Fox News.
She was also a frequent contributor to Defeat By Tweet, a super PAC created in 2020 to encourage Democratic donors to pledge a small donation every time Trump tweeted.
Reyes first drew widespread backlash in 2025 after issuing a preliminary injunction that blocked the Trump administration from banning transgender individuals from serving in the military.
