Haitian community supporters in West Palm Beach, Fla., to protest recent remarks made by President Donald Trump about Haiti. (Damon Higgins/Palm Beach Post via AP, File)

The NAACP has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, citing President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigrants and their home countries as evidence of racial discrimination influencing his administration's decision to end protections for roughly 60,000 Haitians.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Maryland federal court, the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said Homeland Security officials failed to follow the normal decision-making process when considering whether to renew the temporary protected status granted to Haitian immigrants since a devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean country in 2010.

Instead of reviewing facts about conditions in Haiti since the earthquake, including an ongoing cholera outbreak and destruction from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Homeland Security officials sought to bolster stereotypes about blacks and immigrants committing crimes and receiving public assistance, according to the lawsuit.