Ethiopians in US to lose TPS status after ruling
The ruling will apply to about 5,000 Ethiopians living in the U.S.
What happened
A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday lifted his order blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for about 5,000 Ethiopians living in the U.S. The Supreme Court in June “curtailed the ability of judges” to review the administration’s efforts to “end TPS designations for 13 countries,” Reuters said, and U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s new order “lifted the last judicial block.”
Who said what
“All TPS terminations are in effect!” Homeland Security Department General Counsel James Percival said on social media after the ruling. The “crisis in Ethiopia is still ongoing,” said Diana Konaté at African Communities Together, one of the plaintiffs, “and this decision puts the lives of thousands” of TPS holders “at severe risk.”
Between Haitians, Somalis, Venezuelans and other groups, Trump’s DHS has moved to end TPS “for an estimated million-plus” people, “straining industries” like home care, nursing care and construction, Axios said. TPS expiration dates are also “looming for thousands of others,” including “some 170,000 people from El Salvador and 101,000 from Ukraine.”
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What next?
Murphy ruled that the Supreme Court had rendered most of the plaintiffs’ objections moot, but he allowed them to “continue to litigate over whether DHS’s action was motivated by racial or national origin animus,” Reuters said.
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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.