A federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump administration to end deportation protections for Ethiopian immigrants, allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enforce its terminations of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston lifted a temporary hold on the program, which previously allowed Ethiopian nationals to live and work legally in the United States because their home country was considered unsafe.

DHS determined last year that Ethiopia no longer met the conditions for TPS, stating that conditions in the country had improved. The decision removes the final legal obstacle for DHS after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the administration could terminate similar protections for individuals from Haiti and Syria.

"ALL TPS terminations are now IN EFFECT," the DHS stated on X. "Those with terminated TPS should leave NOW. If they don’t, we will DEPORT them."

Judge Murphy's decision was split. He had previously issued an administrative stay in the case, African Communities Together v. Markwayne Mullin, where plaintiffs argued that DHS terminated the protections due to racial and national-origin discrimination. In his ruling, Murphy found that DHS possesses the authority to terminate TPS designations and that individuals were not entitled to individual hearings prior to the nationwide program's termination.

However, Murphy allowed the plaintiffs' primary claim to proceed, determining they had presented a plausible case that the government ended protections due to discrimination, which would violate the Fifth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Established by Congress in 1990, TPS is a humanitarian program that provides temporary work authorization and protection from deportation to noncitizens whose home countries are deemed unsafe due to armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.

Ethiopia was first designated for the TPS program on December 12, 2022, following ongoing armed conflict and severe climatic shocks. The Secretary of Homeland Security terminated Ethiopia's TPS designation last December, setting an effective end date of February 13, 2026. The termination led to immediate legal challenges and a series of temporary court-ordered pauses that have now been dissolved by the latest ruling.