A federal court in Boston on Saturday issued an administrative stay blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ethiopia, handing a reprieve to roughly 26,700 Ethiopian nationals living and working in the United States. Judge Brian Murphy’s order keeps existing employment authorization documents valid while the court weighs constitutional claims brought by advocacy group African Communities Together. The ruling comes one month after the Supreme Court curtailed lower-court authority to review TPS decisions under the Administrative Procedure Act. Plaintiffs pivoted, arguing that ending TPS without individualized hardship review violates due-process and equal-protection guarantees. Murphy found those arguments serious enough to justify maintaining the status quo. For employers, the stay removes immediate uncertainty about I-9 compliance and job continuity for Ethiopian staff whose work permits were due to lapse in August. Corporate mobility managers should nonetheless track the case closely; DHS could still prevail on appeal, triggering a rapid 60-day wind-down period. The decision also deepens a brewing constitutional confrontation between district courts and the Trump administration, which has signaled it may simply ignore injunctions it views as inconsistent with the recent Supreme Court ruling. A patchwork of TPS terminations—Haiti, Syria and now Ethiopia—thus remains in legal limbo, complicating workforce planning for industries that rely heavily on TPS holders, including health care, logistics and hospitality.
Source: Fox News
