A US federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration can revoke legal protections that have protected more than 5,000 Ethiopians from deportation.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy gave the green light to lift the group’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS), citing conditions in their home country that may not allow them to return safely. TPS is a legal category that allows foreign nationals in the United States to apply for work permits.
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Since assuming his second term in 2025, President Trump has sought to eliminate TPS protections for various nationalities.
Tuesday’s ruling lifts a final judicial block that had prevented the government from ending TPS for countries. Administration officials celebrated the ruling.
“Judge Brian Murphy just lifted the stay on the termination of the Ethiopian TPS,” Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival wrote in a social media post. “All TPS terminations are valid!”
The decision follows a 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that limited the court’s ability to review the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to end TPS protections.
Although the Supreme Court’s decision focuses on TPS recipients from Syria and Haiti, it applies broadly to other nationalities fighting early termination of their TPS status.
Approximately 1.29 million people lived in the United States under the protection of the TPS system as of March. They represented 17 countries whose conditions were deemed unsafe or unstable by the U.S. government.
However, the Trump administration is seeking to end TPS protections for at least 13 of these nationalities, including people from Venezuela, Nicaragua, South Sudan, and Somalia.
Pew Research Center estimates that TPS cancellation will affect at least 1 million people who were in the program as of this year.
Since taking office for his second term, President Trump has embarked on a massive effort to restrict immigration and increase deportations. TPS cancellation is part of that project.
The administration argues that repeated extensions of the TPS program have made it a long-term program rather than a “temporary” one.
“Temporary protected status is only temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin wrote Tuesday in response to the latest ruling.
He also issued a warning to those whose legal status is found to have been revoked: “If you are in our country and your status has been revoked, you are here illegally. You have two options: leave the country immediately or be promptly deported.”
But critics say TPS is revoked for groups whose home countries continue to suffer from civil war, natural disasters or other dangers.
Ethiopians living in the United States were first granted TPS in 2022 under former President Joe Biden’s administration, citing concerns about violent conflict and humanitarian issues in Ethiopia.
The US State Department currently has the country on a Level 3 travel advisory on a four-point scale, advising citizens not to travel due to “insecurity, crime, kidnapping, terrorism (and) landmines.”
The Department of Homeland Security first announced in December that it was ending TPS protections for Ethiopians, saying the situation in Ethiopia “does not pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Ethiopians.”
But human rights groups say the Trump administration’s decision does not seem to reflect the reality on the ground in Ethiopia.
“The crisis in Ethiopia continues and this decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the United States at serious risk,” Diana Konate, deputy executive director for policy and advocacy at African Communities Together, told news agency Reuters.
Judge Murphy had previously suspended the Trump administration’s attempt to end TPS for Ethiopians in light of issues not addressed in the Supreme Court’s June decision.
His court heard arguments that the attorney general, not the Department of Homeland Security, is authorized under the law to terminate TPS protections before they expire.
But Murphy ultimately dismissed that argument. However, Tuesday’s decision leaves open the possibility of an appeal, arguing that the Trump administration was motivated by hostility toward certain races or nationalities.
