By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-07-25 02:51:48 | Updated at 2026-07-25 03:38:06
48 minutes ago
A federal judge blocked on Friday the Trump administration’s termination of Ethiopia’s temporary protected status (TPS) designation.
Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted an administrative stay that keeps in place deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians living in the United States.
The stay allows time for the court to consider merits of the case that cannot be appropriately evaluated in haste, the order stated.
“During the period of the stay of the Termination, the Termination shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” Murphy wrote in his decision.
It remains unclear how long the stay will last.
“Judge Brian Murphy just entered an order preventing us from terminating TPS for Ethiopia,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special counsel James Percival wrote in a post on X. “These district judges are engaged in mutiny against the Supreme Court. It must stop!”
The Supreme Court was asked to step in by the federal government to rule on the issue of terminating TPS for Syrians, specifically. The high court enjoined the case with another regarding Haiti’s TPS designation.
Justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration on June 25, saying it can end these deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States.
In a 6–3 decision, a majority of the court said federal law barred judicial review of certain legal arguments against the department’s determinations for temporary protected status.
DHS, under then-Secretary Kristi Noem, terminated the temporary status on Dec. 12, 2025, for Ethiopian nationals living in the United States. A review of the country’s conditions no longer met the statutory requirements warranted for continued protected status, the agency said.
TPS allows foreign nationals to temporarily live and work in the United States if their home country is experiencing armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.
Congress created TPS in the 1990s. The designation does not offer a direct path to lawful permanent residency or U.S. citizenship. It requires a periodic review and potential renewal by the DHS secretary based on conditions in the affected foreign nationals’ home country.
Ethiopia’s designation was granted on Dec. 12, 2022, due to armed conflict and extraordinary conditions. Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended it in April 2024.
The Biden administration had expanded the humanitarian program to cover hundreds of thousands of migrants from many countries. Under President Donald Trump, DHS has moved to roll back the designations, saying the system has been exploited by illegal immigrants.
“Temporary Protected Status designations are time-limited and were never meant to be a ticket to permanent residency,” a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said on Dec. 12. “Conditions in Ethiopia no longer pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Ethiopian nationals. … [Then] Secretary Noem is terminating this designation to restore integrity in our immigration system.”
Ethiopian nationals under TPS were set to have their designations terminated on Feb. 13, but plaintiffs were granted a stay on Jan. 30.
Likewise, multiple other countries under TPS were set to have their designations terminated, but some terminations were met with legal challenges. The Trump administration has been successful in ending the status for other countries, such as Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
