A federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia while allowing the lawsuit challenging that decision to continue. On August 18, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts lifted the administrative stay he had earlier imposed, permitting the Department of Homeland Security to proceed with the termination [1].
The practical effect is immediate. The termination reaches approximately 5,000 Ethiopian nationals, and their employment authorization documents are set to expire August 19, one day after the ruling [1]. Losing TPS means losing both protection from removal and the legal right to work.
The government's position is straightforward and worth stating on its own terms. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has framed the decision as following the statute's design rather than departing from it. "Temporary Protected Status is meant to be temporary," Mullin said. "Once it expires, individuals are considered to be in the country illegally" [1]. On that view, ending a designation is not a policy reversal but the ordinary conclusion of a program that was never meant to be permanent.
What keeps the case alive is the claim that this particular termination was not made for those ordinary reasons. Murphy allowed the plaintiffs' constitutional challenge, centered on allegations of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment, to move forward even as he lifted the stay [1]. The termination proceeds now, but the question of whether the decision was driven by discriminatory intent has not been resolved, and the district court will keep hearing it.
