Judge blocks Trump move to end protections for Ethiopians

A federal judge has halted an effort by the administration of Donald Trump to strip legal protections from thousands of Ethiopians living in the United States, marking another legal check on the White House’s immigration agenda.

US District Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the administration could not revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 5,000 Ethiopians, a designation that allows them to live and work in the country due to unsafe conditions at home.

At the centre of the decision is a constitutional argument about limits of presidential authority. Murphy said the administration had bypassed procedures set by Congress.

“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,” he wrote. “Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations.”

TPS is designed as a temporary safeguard for people from countries facing conflict, disasters or other crises. Ethiopians were first granted the status in 2022 under former President Joe Biden, with extensions following as conditions in the country remained unstable.

The Trump administration has been trying to roll back such protections more broadly, targeting 13 countries as part of a wider push to tighten immigration rules and reduce the number of people allowed to remain in the US under temporary programmes.

In his ruling, Murphy pointed to a January 2025 executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to reassess TPS designations. He described that directive as providing a “pretextual” basis for ending protections, suggesting the outcome had effectively been predetermined rather than based on an objective review of conditions.

According to the judge, the process signaled that decisions on extending or terminating TPS would be “preordained, rather than based on a meaningful review of in-country conditions”.

The administration pushed back quickly. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called the ruling “just the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America’s legal immigration system”.