Federal judge lifts last court block on ending Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians
Rights & JusticeWell-covered
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The Facts
- US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston lifted a stay blocking the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians.
- The ruling affects roughly 5,000 Ethiopian nationals living and working in the United States.
- Murphy's order removed the last court-ordered block on the Department of Homeland Security ending TPS designations for individual countries.
- The Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to end TPS protections for thousands of Haitians and Syrians.
- The Department of Homeland Security posted on X that people with terminated TPS must leave immediately or be deported.
- Losing TPS ends both protection from deportation and the work authorization that came with the status.
- The Trump administration has moved to terminate TPS for at least 13 countries since 2025.
- Ethiopian plaintiffs can still pursue a claim that the TPS termination was driven by racial or national-origin discrimination.
Context
What is Temporary Protected Status?
TPS is an immigration status granted to nationals of countries the US government designates as unsafe because of armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions National Catholic R…,allAfrica. It allows eligible people already in the US to remain legally and obtain work authorization allAfrica,allAfrica.
Which other countries' TPS designations are ending?
Beyond Ethiopia, the administration has moved to end TPS for countries including Haiti, Syria, Somalia, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Nepal Washington Times,Mondaq Business Bri…,allAfrica. El Salvador's designation expires Sept. 9, Sudan's and Ukraine's on Oct. 19, and Lebanon's on Nov. 27 National Catholic R…,Mondaq Business Bri….
What has been the effect on people who already lost TPS?
Haitian TPS holders have lost jobs after their work authorization ended, including caregivers at group homes and nursing facilities in New York U.S. News & World R…,Newsday. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote to DHS calling the terminations "reckless and inhumane," and elder-care groups have asked for exemptions from removal Newsday,Journal News.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Roughly 5,000 Ethiopians lose deportation protection and work authorization at once, and a discrimination claim over the termination survives the lifting of the block.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about people being removed before an unanswered discrimination claim is heard, or about who decides when a temporary status ends — the executive or the courts.
How left and right read it
What's at risk isn't paperwork but the floor under roughly five thousand people's lives, because losing this status ends protection from deportation and work authorization together. Yet they're told to leave immediately, even though they can still argue the termination was driven by racial or national-origin discrimination — and this is one of at least thirteen countries targeted since 2025. That claim should be answered before anyone is removed.
The question here is who decides when a temporary status ends — the executive, or judges freezing that judgment country by country. With the last court-ordered block lifted and the Supreme Court having already allowed terminations for Haitians and Syrians, the surviving accusation of racist motive — the charge lower courts leveled, as the Washington Times described it — cannot displace that decision. The roughly 5,000 whose protection and work authorization ended should depart.
“He tried again starting last year, and again met with near-universal resistance from lower federal judges, who accused the president of racist motives in rolling back TPS.” — Washington Times
The receipts — all 36 sources
Wire services (2)
Independent coverage (34)
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