A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on Friday, temporarily halting the administration’s decision to terminate deportation protections for more than five thousand Ethiopian nationals residing in the United States. Judge Brian Murphy set the delay to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) time to produce records detailing its decision-making process before a longer-term ruling is considered.
This legal development represents the latest judicial resistance to the administration’s wider effort to end temporary status designations affecting over one million individuals across various nations. The lawsuit, filed by three Ethiopian nationals and the advocacy organization African Communities Together, contested the termination announced in December.
The plaintiffs argued that the DHS unlawfully ended the protections, initially granted in 2022, with only sixty days’ notice, citing ongoing armed conflict within Ethiopia. Furthermore, the suit alleges that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem based the decision on an unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, according to the filing.
This action occurs despite the State Department’s current advisories urging American citizens to reconsider travel to Ethiopia due to risks including civil unrest, terrorism, and kidnapping. The DHS defended its termination by referencing recent peace accords, such as the 2022 Tigray ceasefire, despite reports of renewed fighting in the region this month.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated that TPS was not intended to function as a de facto amnesty program, a role she claims previous administrations have allowed it to assume for decades. This ruling follows a similar decision from a federal appeals court the previous day, which found the termination of protections for 600,000 Venezuelans unlawful.
That appellate panel cited “racist stereotyping” in the Secretary’s actions, which reportedly left beneficiaries in constant fear of deportation and family separation. Approximately a dozen countries currently face TPS termination deadlines as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Broader economic and labor market stability is affected by these ongoing legal challenges, particularly as deadlines loom for other groups, such as Haitians facing removal on February 3. These court battles introduce significant uncertainty into the employment and residency status of hundreds of thousands of long-term residents.
