A federal judge has postponed the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopia, blocking the change from taking effect while the case is decided on the merits. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts granted the plaintiffs’ request on April 8, keeping judge halts ethiopia tps in place for now.
The dispute centers on whether the administration followed the law when it moved to end protections that had shielded Ethiopian nationals from deportation. Then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a notice last year saying Ethiopia’s TPS designation would end at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 13, but the cutoff never took effect because of the litigation.
Murphy said in his memorandum and order that the government ended Ethiopia’s TPS designation “without regard for the process delineated by Congress.” He wrote that the president’s will does not supersede Congress, and that “presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations.” The judge added that the Constitution requires the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
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The plaintiffs argued that the termination violated the TPS statute, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Equal Protection Clause. Murphy, who was nominated to the bench in 2024 by then-President Joe Biden, said the case turns on whether the government acted within the limits Congress set for immigration agencies.
The ruling is the latest setback to the administration’s effort to unwind the Ethiopia designation, which had already been set to expire before the court stepped in. DHS, in a statement provided to CBS News, said the stay was “the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America’s legal immigration system” and added: “Temporary means temporary.”
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The immediate question is no longer whether Ethiopia’s TPS will lapse on the earlier DHS date, but how quickly the court will move toward a final ruling that could decide whether the termination stands at all.
