Judge blocks Trump administration from ending protected status for Ethiopians – court news
The decision is a legal blow to the administration’s efforts to roll back protections for various groups of immigrants.
Published on 9 April 2026
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from revoking legal protections for nearly 5,000 Ethiopians that allow them to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation.
District Judge Brian Murphy handed down the ruling Thursday.
the latest blow to the administration’s efforts to roll back legal immigration status to people from largely non-Western countries.
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Murphy also cited Congress’s role in setting standards for how Temporary Protected Status (TPS) should be granted and revoked. Trump had ignored those procedures, the judge said.
Murphy wrote, “Fundamental to this case – and indeed to our constitutional system – is the principle that the will of the president does not supersede the will of Congress.” “The whims of the president cannot and do not supersede agencies’ statutory duties.”
The Trump administration has attempted to eliminate TPS designations for 13 countries as part of its efforts to restrict migration to the US and expel certain groups already living in the country.
TPS gives eligible aliens in the US the right to live and work in the country if their home is deemed temporarily unsafe due to a conflict, natural disaster, or other “extraordinary” situation.
In his decision, Murphy cited an executive order Trump signed in January 2025, that directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review whether TPS designations were “appropriately limited in scope”.
That order, he said, gave DHS a “pretextual” basis to eliminate TPS designations, bypassing normal protocols.
According to Murphy, this indicated that “the outcome of designation, extension, and termination decisions will be predetermined based on a meaningful review of country conditions”.
A DHS spokesperson responded to Thursday’s decision, saying it was “the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from returning integrity to America’s legal immigration system.”
Ethiopians were first granted TPS in 2022 under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, due to armed conflict and humanitarian suffering. Their protected status was extended in April 2024.
