Judge Blocks Trump's Move to Deport 5,000 Ethiopian Refugees

A federal court ruling has placed a procedural brake on the Trump administration’s effort to end deportation protection for Ethiopians, underscoring the legal constraints shaping Washington’s broader immigration crackdown.

Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court in Boston ordered a temporary halt on January 31, delaying a February 13 deadline that would have exposed more than 5,000 Ethiopian nationals to removal or detention. The decision does not resolve the merits of the case, but it slows implementation and forces the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to justify its actions with a documented administrative record.

Judicial Brake on Deportations

Murphy issued the order during a virtual hearing, emphasizing the need for transparency before irreversible consequences take effect. “I want to do everything I can to keep this case going,” he said, indicating that the pause is designed to preserve judicial review while DHS produces internal records explaining why it moved to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ethiopia.

TPS is a U.S. immigration program that grants temporary relief from deportation and work authorization to nationals of countries facing conflict or disaster.

“Unconstitutional Animus” Allegation

The lawsuit was filed by three Ethiopian nationals alongside African Communities Together, an advocacy group, after DHS announced in December that it would terminate Ethiopia’s TPS designation.

Ethiopia was first granted TPS in 2022, amid armed conflict and humanitarian crises. Plaintiffs argue that the administration provided only 60 days’ notice, despite ongoing instability, and that the decision violated statutory and constitutional requirements.

Central to the complaint is the allegation that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem acted with an “unconstitutional animus against non-white immigrants.” While the court has not ruled on that claim, Murphy’s order compels DHS to disclose how it weighed conditions in Ethiopia, including security and humanitarian factors, before ending protections.

The State Department currently advises Americans to reconsider travel to Ethiopia, citing “sporadic violent conflict, civil unrest, crime, communications disruptions, terrorism and kidnapping.”

DHS, however, has pointed to developments such as a 2022 ceasefire in the Tigray region to justify its assessment, even as renewed fighting has been reported there this month.

TPS as Policy Battleground

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the termination, stating that TPS “was never intended to be a de facto amnesty programme, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

The Ethiopia case forms part of a wider push by the Trump administration to unwind TPS designations covering more than one million people from roughly a dozen countries.

The ruling follows a separate legal blow a day earlier, when a federal appeals court found that the administration unlawfully ended TPS for about 600,000 Venezuelans. That three-judge panel concluded that Noem’s actions relied on “racist stereotyping” and left affected communities “in a constant state of fear that they will be deported, detained, separated from their families.”

TPS Termination to Other Nationals

Other deadlines are approaching. Approximately 350,000 Haitians are set to lose TPS on February 3, while Somalis face a March 17 cutoff, despite Somalia remaining under a U.S. “Do Not Travel” advisory.

In remarks made on December 10, Trump said he was pursuing what he described as a permanent halt to migration from several developing countries, explicitly naming Afghanistan, Haiti and Somalia, and later pushed back against accounts of his language while stressing that his comments were made privately to lawmakers.

The statement came as his administration moved to roll back Temporary Protected Status for multiple nationalities, part of a wider effort to narrow humanitarian immigration pathways across several regions.

Together, these cases illustrate how courts are becoming central arbiters in determining the pace and scope of the administration’s immigration agenda, with Ethiopia now the latest test case.