Judge Blocks Homeland Security Plan to End Ethiopia Temporary Protected Status

(MASSACHUSETTS) — U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy blocked the Trump administration’s effort to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians on April 8, 2026, postponing the effective date pending resolution of the case.

Murphy ruled that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem violated the TPS statute and the Administrative Procedure Act when she moved to end the designation without following Congress-mandated processes. He found the decision lacked the required inter-agency consultation and that the termination was pretextual.

In a memorandum and order, Murphy wrote: “Because Defendants terminated Ethiopia’s TPS designation without regard for the process delineated by Congress, the Court will grant Plaintiffs’ motion.” He added: “Fundamental to this case — and indeed to our constitutional system — is the principle that the will of the President does not supersede that of Congress. Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations.”

The ruling from the District of Massachusetts keeps in place protections that cover over 5,000 Ethiopians in the United States. Temporary Protected Status allows nationals of designated countries to live and work legally in the country when conditions at home prevent safe return.

Ethiopia first received the designation in 2022 under the Biden administration because of armed conflict and humanitarian suffering. The government extended that designation in April 2024.

Murphy had already paused the administration’s move once before. On January 30, 2026, he issued a temporary order halting the planned February 13 termination at 11:59 p.m. so the court could review the merits of the challenge.

Noem’s Department of Homeland Security announced in December 2025 that it would end Ethiopia’s TPS designation. The administration said conditions in Ethiopia, including armed conflicts, had improved enough that the country no longer met the legal standard for Temporary Protected Status.

Murphy rejected the way the administration reached that result. He found that Noem failed to properly consult other agencies and relied only on two brief emails from the State Department that rubber-stamped a pre-decided outcome.

The judge also found that the Ethiopia decision did not stand alone. He said the administration had already resolved to end TPS for every one of the 12 countries reviewed under its tenure, a finding that supported his conclusion that the termination was pretextual.

That language put the dispute beyond a narrow fight over Ethiopia alone. Murphy’s order framed the case as a test of whether the executive branch can ignore procedures Congress set out in the TPS statute.

His ruling centered on process as much as policy. Congress created Temporary Protected Status with statutory requirements, and Murphy said agencies must follow those requirements even when the White House wants a faster or broader outcome.

The Administrative Procedure Act also figured prominently in the decision. Murphy said the administration violated that law by ending the designation without following the process required by Congress and without the consultation the statute demands.

For Ethiopians covered by the designation, the order preserves the ability to remain and work legally in the United States while the case continues. The court’s action leaves in place the status that has protected that population since 2022.

The administration answered with a sharp political attack on the ruling. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “This stay by radical, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy is just the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America’s legal immigration system. Temporary means temporary. Country conditions—including armed conflicts—in Ethiopia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administration is putting Americans first.”

That response echoed the administration’s broader argument that TPS designations had lasted too long and that improved conditions should bring them to an end. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole O’Connor defended the department’s review and argued that Noem had lawfully reviewed conditions and made a rational determination, even if politically motivated.

Murphy’s order did not accept that defense. Instead, he concluded that the department’s process fell short of the law and that the result had effectively been decided before the required consultation took place.

The legal fight has unfolded over a compressed timeline. DHS announced the termination in December 2025, Murphy froze the move on January 30, 2026, before the February 13 deadline took effect, and then issued his final ruling blocking the termination on April 8, 2026.

That sequence matters because the January order prevented the protections from expiring while the court examined the case. Without that temporary halt, Ethiopians covered by the designation would have faced the scheduled end of their status before Murphy reached the merits.

Murphy, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2024, cast the dispute in constitutional terms. His order said the powers of the presidency do not override statutes enacted by Congress, and he warned against replacing legal obligations with presidential preference.

The judge’s phrasing was unusually direct. “Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations,” he wrote, tying the Ethiopia case to a broader separation-of-powers principle.

Temporary Protected Status itself is limited in design but often carries large consequences for those covered. It applies to nationals from designated countries experiencing ongoing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.

In Ethiopia’s case, the Biden administration cited armed conflict and humanitarian suffering when it granted the designation in 2022. The extension in April 2024 kept those protections in place, and over 5,000 Ethiopians in the United States remained eligible to live and work legally under that status.

The Trump administration took a different view after Noem became secretary. DHS said conditions had improved enough that Ethiopia no longer qualified, and it moved in December 2025 to bring the designation to an end.

Murphy said the law required more than a conclusion announced by the department. He found that Noem had not followed the Congress-mandated process, and he singled out the limited consultation record, including the two brief State Department emails, as part of the problem.

His finding that the termination was pretextual raised the stakes further. That conclusion suggested the department was not conducting a country-specific review on Ethiopia’s circumstances alone, but instead carrying out a wider policy to end TPS across the board for countries reviewed by the administration.

The Ethiopia ruling now stands as another setback for that broader effort. The administration is pushing to end TPS for 13 countries, and the case arrives as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in late April 2026 on Syrian and Haitian designations.

That wider context has turned TPS into one of the administration’s most closely watched immigration battles. The program sits at the intersection of humanitarian protections, executive power and the limits courts may place on agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act.

For now, Murphy’s order leaves Ethiopia’s designation in place. It also sends a clear message about the boundaries of executive action in immigration law, one Murphy spelled out in the ruling itself: “Because Defendants terminated Ethiopia’s TPS designation without regard for the process delineated by Congress, the Court will grant Plaintiffs’ motion.”