US judge permits revocation of deportation protections for Ethiopians

A federal district court in Washington, D.C., issued a ruling on Thursday that clears the way for the Trump administration to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for citizens of Ethiopia. The decision upholds the administration’s request to end the program, which had been granted to more than 30,000 Ethiopians living in the United States after the 2015 declaration of a humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. The court found that the administration’s determination that conditions in Ethiopia no longer meet the statutory criteria for TPS was not arbitrary or capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Human rights groups and immigration advocates warned that the removal of TPS could expose thousands of Ethiopian nationals to the risk of deportation despite ongoing violence, displacement, and food insecurity in parts of the country. The Department of Homeland Security has indicated that individuals will have a limited period to apply for other immigration relief or to depart the United States. Legal challenges to the ruling are expected, and the decision may prompt further scrutiny of the administration’s broader efforts to curtail TPS designations for other nations.