A Biden-appointed federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary amnesty for thousands of Ethiopian nationals in the U.S. since 2022.
In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy described the Trump administration’s “termination” of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) amnesty for Ethiopian nationals as “unsurprising in light” of President Donald Trump’s executive order, Reuters reported.
Murphy also noted that “the will of the President does not supersede that of Congress.”
“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,” Murphy said. “Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations.”
In an executive order in January 2025, Trump directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure that TPS designations “are consistent with the provisions of section 244 of the INA (8 U.S.C 1254a), and that such designations are appropriately limited in scope.”
Murphy found that “DHS disregarded the statutory procedures Congress enacted that govern TPS and provided a ‘pretextual’ rationale” for ending TPS amnesty for thousands of Ethiopians.
In December, DHS announced that it was ending TPS amnesty for Ethiopian nationals, and in a press release, warned that “Ethiopian nationals with no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States have 60 days to voluntarily depart” from the country.
DHS also warned that after February 13, the agency “may arrest and deport any Ethiopian national without status after their TPS has been terminated.”
“Temporary Protected Status designations are time-limited and were never meant to be a ticket to permanent residency,” a spokesperson from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a statement at the time. “Conditions in Ethiopia no longer pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Ethiopian nationals.”
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