Trump Administration Cleared to End Temporary Protected Status for Thousands of Ethiopians in the United States
A US federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Ethiopian nationals living in the United States, potentially exposing them to deportation as the administration intensifies its broader immigration crackdown.
The ruling affects an estimated 5,000 Ethiopians who currently benefit from TPS, a humanitarian immigration protection designed for nationals of countries facing extraordinary and dangerous conditions, including armed conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies.
Following the court’s decision, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declared that Ethiopians whose TPS has been terminated would no longer have protection from deportation.
“Those with terminated TPS are in our nation ILLEGALLY,” the department said in a post on X, adding that affected individuals have two options: leave the United States or face deportation.
Federal Court Removes Barrier to TPS Termination
US District Judge Brian Murphy’s decision lifted a temporary stay that had prevented the Trump administration from ending TPS protections for Ethiopians while legal challenges were being considered.
The ruling comes amid a wider effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce humanitarian immigration protections and increase removals of undocumented immigrants and others who no longer have legal status to remain in the country.
The administration has moved to terminate TPS protections for nationals from more than a dozen countries, arguing that conditions in several of those countries have improved sufficiently for beneficiaries to return.
The Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, James Percival, welcomed the latest ruling, declaring on X: “All TPS terminations are in effect!”
Ethiopia is the latest country whose TPS designation has been terminated under the administration’s current immigration policy.
Thousands Could Face Deportation
The consequences of the decision could be significant for Ethiopian nationals who have built lives in the United States under TPS protection.
The status provides eligible individuals with temporary protection from deportation as well as authorization to work legally in the country. With the termination now taking effect, those who do not have another valid immigration status could face the prospect of leaving the US or being placed in deportation proceedings. Ethiopian nationals and immigration advocates who challenged the termination have strongly criticized the decision.
African Communities Together, an advocacy organization representing African immigrants, warned that ending the protections could place thousands of people at serious risk, particularly because instability continues in Ethiopia.
Diana Konaté, the organization’s deputy executive director for policy and advocacy, said the crisis in Ethiopia remains unresolved and argued that the ruling exposes Ethiopian immigrants in the United States to severe danger.
The legal battle, however, is not completely over. Judge Murphy dismissed some of the claims brought by the plaintiffs but allowed them to continue pursuing arguments that the TPS termination may have been influenced by racial or national-origin bias. Such discrimination, if established, could raise constitutional concerns.
Why Ethiopia Was Granted TPS
Ethiopia was first designated for Temporary Protected Status by the administration of former President Joe Biden in 2022.
The decision followed intense armed conflict in the country, particularly the devastating Tigray war, which lasted from 2020 to 2022 and caused widespread displacement, destruction and loss of life.
At the time of the designation, US officials estimated that more than 20,000 Ethiopians who had been displaced by the conflict and had continuously lived in the United States since October 2022 could potentially qualify for the protection. TPS was intended to give eligible Ethiopians temporary stability while conditions in their home country remained unsafe.
However, the Trump administration later determined that the circumstances supporting the designation no longer justified maintaining the protection.
DHS announced in December that it would terminate TPS for Ethiopian nationals, with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arguing that conditions in Ethiopia had improved sufficiently for the designation to end.
Concerns Over Ethiopia’s Continuing Instability
The decision has generated renewed concern because Ethiopia continues to face serious security challenges in several parts of the country.
In the Tigray region, tensions have resurfaced nearly four years after the signing of the Pretoria Agreement, which brought an end to the devastating two-year war between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Recent reports of fighting and drone strikes in parts of Tigray have heightened fears that the region could once again descend into widespread conflict.
Millions of people in northern Ethiopia continue to face the consequences of the previous war, while political tensions between federal authorities and Tigrayan leaders have intensified.
The TPLF has recently taken steps toward restoring the regional government that existed before the war while seeking to dismantle the interim administration established by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
Federal authorities, meanwhile, have accused Tigrayan leaders of cooperating with neighbouring Eritrea and Sudanese military forces, further complicating an already fragile political and security environment.
There are also concerns that renewed tensions could draw Eritrea into the confrontation and trigger broader instability across the Horn of Africa.
Beyond Tigray, Ethiopia continues to struggle with armed insurgencies in Oromia and Amhara, two of the country’s most populous regions.
Part of a Broader Immigration Crackdown
The Ethiopian TPS decision forms part of a much larger immigration policy shift under the Trump administration. The administration has already moved to terminate TPS protections for nationals of several countries, including Venezuela and Honduras, as it seeks to scale back humanitarian immigration programmes and increase enforcement against people without permanent legal status.
The Supreme Court also recently allowed the administration to end similar protections affecting thousands of Haitian and Syrian nationals, creating a broader legal and political environment in which TPS terminations have become increasingly difficult to block.
For Ethiopian nationals currently living in the United States, the latest ruling could therefore mark a major turning point. Those who relied on TPS for protection from deportation and authorization to work may now need to determine whether they qualify for another form of immigration status or prepare to leave the country.
At the same time, the ongoing legal challenge means the controversy surrounding the termination is not necessarily over. For advocates, the central question remains whether Ethiopia is genuinely safe enough for thousands of people to return, particularly as armed conflict, political tensions and regional instability continue.
The court’s decision has therefore placed thousands of Ethiopian immigrants in the United States at a critical crossroads, highlighting the growing impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration agenda and the difficult choices now facing communities whose legal protection is being withdrawn.
