U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs has issued a new administrative stay blocking the Trump administration's termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia. The move comes after plaintiffs filed an amended lawsuit alleging the administration violated the Fifth Amendment by terminating the designation based on racial and national-origin discrimination.
Judge Burroughs' order on Friday followed an amended complaint filed Thursday by African Communities Together and other groups. This filing was a renewed effort to preserve TPS protections for Somali nationals after a Supreme Court ruling in June, Mullin v. Doe, limited lower courts' ability to halt TPS terminations based on non-constitutional grounds.
The plaintiffs' amended lawsuit argues that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) decision to revoke Somalia's TPS was predetermined, citing a November 2025 Truth Social post by then-President Donald Trump announcing the end of TPS months before the DHS review process was complete. They contend this violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, as the decision was allegedly made before the agency finished its legally required review.
Furthermore, the complaint alleges violations of the Fifth Amendment's Equal Protection guarantee, asserting that the administration targeted Somali nationals based on race and national origin. The plaintiffs pointed to past remarks attributed to Trump describing Somali immigrants negatively and expressing a desire not to have them in the country, contrasting these with stated preferences for white immigrants.
This latest order has intensified scrutiny regarding the use of administrative stays by district judges to circumvent higher court rulings. It follows similar administrative stays issued for TPS terminations affecting Ethiopia and South Sudan, which were subsequently reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The First Circuit based its reversals on the Supreme Court's Mullin decision, which held that lower courts generally cannot block TPS terminations using non-constitutional claims.
DHS General Counsel James Percival criticized Judge Burroughs' order, calling it a continuation of "defiance, obstruction, and delay" by federal judges. Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan also questioned the order, stating that the claims in the amended complaint are legally deficient and that the judge's order "turns the law upside down."
Judge Burroughs has presided over the Somalia TPS litigation since earlier this year. She initially entered an administrative stay on March 13, temporarily preventing the termination from taking effect while the case proceeded.