Earlier this week, the Trump Administration saw a victory in court when a judge ruled that it could end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 5,000 Ethiopian nationals currently residing and working in the United States. Almost immediately, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that TPS status for those Ethiopian nationals had been terminated.
Advocacy groups argued that the termination would place those nationals back in a country currently in an “ongoing crisis.”
“This decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the U.S. at severe risk,” Diana Konaté, deputy executive director of policy and advocacy for African Communities Together, told Reuters.
In June, the Supreme Court, in a conservative majority, ruled that temporary protected status for countries such as Syria and Haiti could be terminated. Haitians have since spoken out against the ruling, with some decrying mass roundups and economic pain. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spoke to Trump personally regarding Haitian nationals who live and work in New York, arguing that removing temporary protected status for those individuals would hurt the city’s economy and culture.
“The Haitian community is an indispensable part of New York City,” Mamdani said in a statement. Their contributions to the health care, construction, and hospitality industries, among so many others, help drive our economic strength. Their art, food, culture and families help make ours the greatest city on earth.”
He added, “Only President Trump has the power to restore TPS or grant ‘Deferred Enforced Departure’ (DED) to affected TPS holders. Doing so would provide immediate protection while allowing families, employers and communities the certainty they need – and demonstrate the importance of an immigration policy that is both orderly and compassionate. The President should exercise his authority to benefit all New Yorkers, protect our economy and provide certainty for employers and communities.”
Originally, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled in April that DHS at the time disregarded statutory procedures for TPS. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, he again issued an order temporarily blocking the end of Ethiopians’ TPS status while he considered other DHS factors that the Supreme Court’s ruling did not immediately address.
When TPS was established in 1990, it was under the attorney general’s purview as to whether it could be extended or terminated for nationals who had obtained the status. Murphy did allow plaintiffs in the case to continue to argue whether the deportations and actions of Homeland Security were motivated by “racial or national origin animus,” a violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Following Murphy’s ruling clearing the way for DHS to end TPS for Ethiopians, DHS general counsel James Percival, who is currently facing an ethics complaint in Florida, celebrated the move.
“All TPS terminations are in effect!” he wrote.
