Judge postpones termination of temporary status for Ethiopians

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s decision to end a temporary status that has protected more than 5,000 Ethiopians from deportation and allowed them to live and work in the United States.

In his Wednesday decision, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy from Massachusetts said the Trump administration terminated the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) “without regard for the process delineated by Congress.”

The decision came at a time when hundreds of thousands of TPS holders from different nationalities are challenging the termination of their status at the federal courts. It represents the latest legal setback for the Trump's administration efforts to put an end to TPS as part of his hard-line immigration policy.

More than 1 million migrants from 17 countries were protected by TPS during President Joe Biden's administration. But the Department of Homeland Security has terminated the designation for 13 of those countries since President Donald Trump came to office for his second term in January 2025.

Venezuelans comprised the largest group of beneficiaries, followed by Haitians and Salvadorans.

On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the administration efforts to terminate TPS for 6,100 people from Syria and 350,000 from Haiti.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to work in increments of up to 18 months.

The Biden administration granted TPS to Ethiopians living in the U.S. in 2022, noting ​the need to protect them from armed conflict ⁠and humanitarian suffering. In April 2024, it was extended.

Under Trump’s administration, the Department of Homeland Security terminated TPS for Ethiopia in December 2025, saying that the country no longer met the conditions for its designation.

The judge said DHS disregarded the statutory procedures Congress enacted that govern TPS.

“Fundamental to this case — and indeed to our constitutional system — is the principle that the will of the President does not supersede that of Congress,” Murphy, who was appointed by Biden, said in his decision. “Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations.”

After Murphy's decision, DHS reiterated that TPS is a temporary status.

DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the ruling "is just the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America’s legal immigration system.”