A United States federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate deportation protections for about 5,000 Ethiopians living in the country under Temporary Protected Status.
US District Judge Brian E. Murphy on Tuesday rejected a request by African Communities Together, an advocacy group for African immigrants, to halt the termination while its legal challenge proceeds.
The ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions allowing the administration to withdraw temporary protections previously granted to immigrants from several countries.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, allows eligible nationals of countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters or other humanitarian emergencies to legally remain and work in the United States without facing deportation.
The Trump administration has argued that TPS is intended to be temporary rather than a permanent immigration solution, criticising previous administrations for repeatedly extending the protections.
The Supreme Court earlier this summer also allowed the administration to terminate TPS protections for nationals of Syria and Haiti, potentially exposing hundreds of thousands of people to deportation.
Ethiopia was designated for TPS after armed conflict that began in the Tigray region in late 2020 and later spread to other parts of the country.
The African Union has estimated that the conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The Biden administration granted TPS to certain Ethiopian nationals in 2022, providing them with 18 months of protection from deportation.
The designation was extended in 2024 by then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas because of the continuing conflict.
The Department of Homeland Security later moved to end the Ethiopian TPS designation by February, but Murphy previously blocked the termination from taking effect.
In his latest ruling, Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, rejected arguments from lawyers representing the Ethiopian immigrants that the termination violated their constitutional due process rights.
The lawyers also argued that then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the authority to revoke Ethiopia’s TPS designation, claiming that such authority belonged to the attorney general.
In recent weeks, courts have similarly allowed the Trump administration to proceed with ending TPS protections for nationals of Haiti, South Sudan and Somalia.
