By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A federal judge on Tuesday granted an order allowing U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to end legal protections granted to over 5,000 Ethiopians that have allowed them to live and work in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston lifted the last judicial block on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminating the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for individual countries after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration in June to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria
The Supreme Court’s ruling, backed by its 6-3 conservative majority, curtailed the ability of judges to review DHS efforts under Trump to end TPS designations for 13 countries that provided humanitarian immigration protection to eligible migrants from those nations.
DHS’ general counsel, James Percival hailed the decision in a social media post. “All TPS terminations are in effect!” he wrote.
The termination of Ethiopia’s TPS designation had been challenged by several Ethiopian nationals and the advocacy group African Communities Together, which expressed disappointment in Tuesday’s ruling.
“The crisis in Ethiopia is still ongoing, and this decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the U.S. at severe risk,” Diana Konaté, the group’s deputy executive director of policy and advocacy said.
TPS under federal law is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events.
It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.
Former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration first granted Ethiopians already in the United States that status beginning in 2022, citing the need to protect the African nation’s citizens from armed conflict and humanitarian suffering.
DHS under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in December it would end those protections on the grounds that conditions no longer posed a serious threat to Ethiopians returning safely.
