Federal Judge Blocks Trump's Move to End Ethiopian TPS Protections

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued a decisive rebuke to the Trump administration Wednesday, blocking the Department of Homeland Security's termination of Temporary Protected Status for roughly 5,000 Ethiopians living in the United States and finding that the government had acted "without regard for the process delineated by Congress."

The ruling, from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, grants a temporary postponement of the termination while litigation brought by advocacy groups and TPS beneficiaries moves forward. Murphy found that DHS likely violated both the Administrative Procedure Act and the federal TPS statute when it moved to end Ethiopia's designation, and he determined that the administration offered what he called a "pretextual" rationale for doing so. Addressing the administration's deference to executive will, Murphy wrote plainly that "the will of the President does not supersede that of Congress."

The practical consequences of the stay were immediate. Ethiopian TPS holders can continue working and living in the United States without fear of removal while the case proceeds. USCIS issued guidance following the ruling, extending the validity of certain employment authorization documents through mid-April and advising employers on Form I-9 compliance for affected workers.

DHS had announced the termination in December, warning Ethiopians with no other lawful basis for remaining that they had 60 days to voluntarily depart. That move tracked a January executive order from President Trump directing the administration to restrict or rescind TPS designations across multiple countries. Murphy's ruling found those motivations legally beside the point: TPS is a humanitarian protection tied to conditions in the country of origin, and the statute requires a mandatory periodic-review process before a designation can be ended, a process DHS skipped entirely.

Muslim Advocates and the Haitian Bridge Alliance were among the organizations that brought and supported the case. Erik Crew of the Haitian Bridge Alliance said the court recognized the "irreparable harm" beneficiaries would have faced had the termination been allowed to proceed. DHS pushed back sharply, calling Murphy a "radical, Biden-appointed" jurist engaged in judicial activism and asserting that "Temporary means temporary" while arguing that conditions inside Ethiopia had improved enough to justify ending the designation.

The Ethiopia case is one of several running through federal courts as the administration has worked to unwind TPS protections for Venezuela, Haiti, and other nations. Murphy's order does not settle whether Ethiopia should retain its designation; it simply holds the termination in suspension while the courts weigh whether the administration followed the law in attempting to end it.

If the government loses on the merits, it may be required to restart the full review and notice process. If it prevails, the roughly 5,000 Ethiopians currently shielded by the stay would face renewed removal risk, returning the question of their safety squarely to an administration that has already shown it considers those conditions resolved.