Federal Judge Lifts Stay, Clearing DHS to End Temporary Protected Status for About 5,000 Ethiopians
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled on August 18, 2026 that the termination could take effect while the underlying lawsuit — including a discrimination claim he has allowed to proceed — continues.
A Judge Denies Emergency Relief, and Both Sides Call It Something Else
On Tuesday, August 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy lifted the last court order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from ending Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia[1][2]. TPS is a status the Homeland Security secretary can grant to people already in the U.S. when their home country is too dangerous to return to, because of war, disaster, or similar conditions. It isn't a green card and doesn't lead to citizenship. It gives two things: protection from deportation and a work permit, for a period the secretary reviews and can renew or end.
About 5,000 Ethiopians held that status[1][3]. Their work permits expired the day after Murphy's ruling, on August 19[15]. DHS had published the termination notice back in December, finding that armed-conflict conditions in Ethiopia had improved enough that protection was no longer warranted[9].
Here's the part that's gotten lost in a lot of the coverage: Murphy did not rule the termination legal. He denied a request to keep protections in place while the underlying lawsuit continues[3][4]. That's a different question, and the gap between those two questions is where this story actually lives.
Two Government Agencies, Two Different Ethiopias
The government's own paperwork doesn't agree with itself. In December 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem found that armed-conflict conditions in Ethiopia had improved enough to end TPS[9]. Four months later, on April 1, 2026, the State Department renewed its travel advisory telling Americans not to travel to the Amhara region because of armed conflict[5].
Both statements come from the U.S. government. Neither agency has publicly explained the difference. Fighting between federal forces and Fano militias in Amhara has continued through 2026, with attack rates rising more than 50% from March to May compared with the prior three months, according to conflict-monitoring analysis[17]. Human Rights Watch documented drone strikes on civilians in Amhara in February 2026[5][16].
That contradiction is the strongest piece of evidence the plaintiffs have. It's also something DHS doesn't directly dispute — the department's position is simply that deciding when country conditions have improved enough is the secretary's call to make, not a court's[3][9].
Why the Judge Could Deny Relief and Still Keep the Case Alive
To understand what Murphy actually did, it helps to know the case has two different legal tracks. One is a claim that DHS skipped statutory steps in its country-conditions review. The other is a constitutional claim: that the termination was driven by bias against non-white immigrants, which would violate the Fifth Amendment's equal-protection guarantee[4][14].
In June 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Mullin v. Doe that the TPS statute's judicial-review provision blocks most non-constitutional challenges to a secretary's TPS decisions. The Court also said plaintiffs in a related case were unlikely to win on equal-protection grounds[4]. That ruling effectively closed off the statutory-process argument. It left the constitutional claim as the only real door still open.
Murphy's order on August 18 applied two separate legal tests. The test for emergency relief asks whether plaintiffs are likely to win. The test for surviving dismissal only asks whether their claim is plausible enough to proceed. Following the Supreme Court's reasoning in Mullin, Murphy found the plaintiffs unlikely to win the discrimination claim right now — so he denied the emergency stay[4]. But he also found the claim plausible enough to keep alive, so the lawsuit continues[4][14].
That's a narrower outcome than either side's headlines suggested. Murphy didn't reject the discrimination claim. He said it isn't likely to succeed yet, while letting it move forward[4].
What Each Side Is Actually Fighting For
DHS and the Trump administration see this as a matter of who gets to decide. Congress put the secretary in charge of tracking country conditions and ending TPS designations when they no longer apply, they argue, and courts shouldn't override those calls[9]. On their reading, repeated renewals over the years turned an emergency measure into something closer to permanent status — what a then-DHS spokeswoman called a "de facto amnesty program" when the termination was first announced[3]. Winning this case, for them, isn't really about Ethiopia's roughly 5,000 TPS holders. Ethiopia was the last active injunction blocking TPS terminations, after Haiti and Syria had already been resolved[3]. Closing it out locks in the broader principle that these decisions sit with the executive branch, not with district judges[3][7].
African Communities Together, the group that sued, argues DHS skipped steps Congress required in its review process, and that Ethiopia remains at war despite the improved-conditions finding[3][14]. Their equal-protection claim matters more than it might seem, because the Mullin ruling foreclosed most other paths to challenge a TPS termination in court. A constitutional claim is now nearly the only kind that can survive[4][14]. For roughly 5,000 people, the practical stakes are immediate: lost jobs, driver's licenses that lapse in states tied to immigration status, and families deciding whether to leave, seek another status, or stay without authorization[3][12].
Murphy's own position, as reflected in the order, is narrower than either side's framing. He's applying binding Supreme Court precedent on the emergency-relief question while preserving a live claim for a fuller record[4]. That's different from "caving" to the Supreme Court, and different from clearing the way for what one outlet called forcing out "Black immigrants" — it's a judge separating two legal tests and ruling on each one differently[4][13].
The Same Order, Read Three Different Ways
Coverage split hard along the lines you'd expect, and the differences aren't really about the facts — they're about which fact gets top billing. Fox News and The Washington Times framed the ruling as a decisive Trump administration win, with the Washington Times headline scaling this roughly 5,000-person case up to "roughly one million TPS migrants," folding in every TPS program at once[6][7]. The Gateway Pundit went further, describing Murphy as having "finally caved" to the Supreme Court — a characterization that doesn't mention he kept the discrimination claim alive[8].
CNN and ABC News led with plainer, more procedural language, describing the court action itself rather than declaring a winner[1][2]. The New Republic headlined its piece "Judge Allows Trump to Force Out More Black Immigrants," adopting the plaintiffs' racial-discrimination theory as the framing for the ruling itself, and using "force out" to describe an outcome that, as of publication, hadn't yet happened through removals[13]. Al Jazeera placed the ruling in a sequence with earlier Haiti and Syria terminations, a framing that builds a pattern without stating a conclusion outright[3].
What Doesn't Move While the Case Continues
The lawsuit is still open. No court has yet ruled on whether the termination itself was lawful[4]. What's changed is narrower and more concrete: as of August 19, roughly 5,000 Ethiopians no longer have work authorization and are subject to removal[1][15].
In Ethiopia, the conditions at the center of the dispute haven't resolved either way. Fighting in the Amhara region has continued through 2026, and the State Department's own advisory still warns Americans against traveling there[5][17]. Those conditions don't shift based on which side's account of the court order turns out to carry more weight in the case still ahead.
Summary
On August 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy lifted the last court order blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Ethiopia[1][2]. TPS is a temporary immigration status. The Homeland Security secretary can grant it to people already in the United States when their home country is too dangerous to return to — because of war, a disaster, or similar conditions. It is not a green card and it does not lead to citizenship. It gives two things: protection from deportation and a work permit, for a set period that the secretary reviews and can renew or end. About 5,000 Ethiopians held it[1][3]. Their work permits expired the day after the ruling[15].
The order does not say the termination was legal. Murphy denied the plaintiffs' request to keep protections in place while their lawsuit continues[3][4]. He pointed to the Supreme Court's June 2026 decision in Mullin v. Doe, which held that the TPS statute's judicial-review bar blocks most non-constitutional challenges to a secretary's TPS decisions, and which also said plaintiffs in related litigation were unlikely to win on equal-protection grounds[4]. Murphy drew a line between two different questions. One is whether plaintiffs are likely to win — the test for emergency relief. The other is whether their claim is plausible enough to survive dismissal. He has let their Fifth Amendment equal-protection claim, alleging the termination was driven by bias against non-white immigrants, move forward on that second question[4][14].
That distinction is the main thing the two sides disagree about. The administration says the ruling confirms that country-conditions calls belong to the executive branch and not to judges, and that TPS had become a permanent status Congress never authorized[3][6]. African Communities Together, the immigrant-advocacy group that sued, says the review process skipped steps Congress required and that Ethiopia is still at war[3][14]. Both sides can point to the government's own record: DHS found in December 2025 that armed-conflict conditions had improved[9], while the State Department's April 1, 2026 travel advisory still tells Americans not to travel to the Amhara region because of armed conflict[5].
One widely repeated description of the ruling is not accurate. Murphy did not reject the discrimination claim. He found the plaintiffs unlikely to win it at this stage, under the Supreme Court's reasoning, while allowing it to proceed[4]. The case is still open.
The Event
On Tuesday, August 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of the District of Massachusetts lifted the stay that had blocked the Department of Homeland Security from terminating Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia[1][2]. He denied a request by African Communities Together to postpone the termination while its lawsuit proceeds[3]. DHS had published the termination notice in the Federal Register on December 15, 2025, based on Secretary Kristi Noem's determination that Ethiopia no longer met the conditions for designation[9]. Work permits for Ethiopian TPS holders expired on August 19, 2026[1][15].
Undisputed Facts
- Ethiopia's TPS designation was terminated by a DHS notice published in the Federal Register on December 15, 2025, citing improved armed-conflict conditions[9].
- African Communities Together and individual Ethiopian TPS holders sued on January 22, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, case 1:26-cv-10278[14].
- Judge Brian Murphy granted a postponement of the termination on April 8, 2026, keeping status and work authorization in place[14].
- On June 25, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Mullin v. Doe that the TPS statute's judicial-review provision bars non-constitutional challenges to TPS designation decisions[4].
- On August 18, 2026, Murphy lifted the stay and denied further postponement; the termination took effect that day[1][2][15].
- About 5,000 Ethiopian nationals held TPS; their work permits expired August 19, 2026[1][3][15].
- Murphy has allowed the plaintiffs' Fifth Amendment equal-protection claim to proceed as plausible, while finding they are not likely to succeed on it at this stage[4].
- The U.S. State Department's Ethiopia travel advisory, renewed April 1, 2026, tells Americans not to travel to the Amhara region because of armed conflict and unrest[5].
- Then-DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, at the time of the December 2025 termination announcement, that TPS "was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program"[3].
The Pressure
Strip away the moralizing and blame. What structural realities persist regardless of which narrative wins?
- Ending judicial review, not just one program
- The administration's larger goal is the Mullin v. Doe principle: that TPS decisions are committed to the secretary and mostly unreviewable[4]. Ethiopia is small — about 5,000 people — but it was the last active injunction, so winning it locks in the rule[3][7].
- The plaintiffs' race against precedent
- African Communities Together needs its equal-protection claim to stay alive because the statutory process claim is now largely foreclosed by Mullin[4]. Constitutional claims are the only door the Supreme Court left open, which is why the discrimination framing is central rather than rhetorical[4][14].
- The government contradicting itself on Ethiopia
- DHS says conditions improved enough to end protection[9]. The State Department says do not travel to Amhara because of armed conflict[5]. Both are official U.S. positions, issued four months apart, and neither agency has reconciled them publicly.
- Small numbers, large precedent
- Ethiopia's TPS population is one of the smallest of any designated country. The stakes are not the 5,000 people; they are what the ruling means for every future designation and termination[3][7].
Material realityAbout 5,000 Ethiopians lost work authorization on August 19, 2026 and are now subject to removal[1][15]. In practice that means jobs ending, driver's licenses lapsing in states that tie them to status, and families deciding whether to leave, apply for another status, or stay without authorization. In Ethiopia, fighting between federal forces and Fano militias in the Amhara region has continued through 2026, with Fano attacks up more than 50% from March to May 2026 compared with the previous three months, and aid access restricted[16]. Human Rights Watch documented drone strikes on civilians in Amhara in February 2026[5][16]. Those conditions do not change based on which side's account of the ruling prevails. The lawsuit itself remains pending, so the legality of the termination is still undecided.
Narrative as a weaponThree parties are actively shaping how this reads. DHS wants you to believe a judge finally accepted that TPS is an executive call and that the program had become an amnesty by default — hence the 'Leave NOW' post on X, written for maximum finality[3]. Right-leaning outlets want you to believe a resistant Biden appointee was forced to submit, so they lead with who appointed him rather than what he wrote[6][8]. Immigrant-advocacy groups and left-leaning outlets want you to believe a court cleared the way to deport Black immigrants into an active war, so they lead with the human count and the discrimination claim[12][13]. All three descriptions leave out the same fact: Murphy denied emergency relief but kept the equal-protection claim alive, which means no court has yet ruled on whether the termination was lawful[4]. The premise circulating in some coverage — that Murphy rejected the discrimination claim — is not what the order says.
How Each Side Sees It
Each major actor’s view — how it frames things, its underlying incentive, and how it’s materially affected. Tap a side to read it.
Frames it asTPS is temporary by statute and by name. Congress gave the Homeland Security secretary — not federal judges — the job of reviewing country conditions and deciding when a designation ends[9]. The Supreme Court agreed in June 2026 that most of those calls are not reviewable in court[4]. On this view, the real problem is that repeated renewals turned an emergency measure into an open-ended amnesty that no Congress ever voted for[3]. If a status can never be ended, the word 'temporary' means nothing, and the executive loses a tool it needs to manage immigration honestly.
WhyDeliver on a central campaign promise to shrink discretionary humanitarian immigration programs, and establish that TPS decisions are executive calls insulated from district-court review[3][6].
Impact on themThe order removes the last active injunction against its TPS terminations, closing out a series that already covered Haiti and Syria[3]. It strengthens the government's hand in remaining immigration litigation and gives DHS a concrete enforcement win to point to[6][7].
Frames it asTwo arguments, and they are separate. First, process: the statute requires a real periodic review of country conditions, and they say DHS skipped steps Congress wrote into the law[3][14]. Second, purpose: they allege the termination was driven by bias against non-white immigrants, which would violate the Fifth Amendment's equal-protection guarantee[4][14]. Their strongest concrete evidence is the government contradicting itself — DHS says Ethiopia is safe enough to return to, while the State Department tells U.S. citizens not to travel to Amhara at all[5][9]. They also note Murphy himself found the discrimination claim plausible enough to survive[4].
WhyKeep roughly 5,000 members lawfully present and employed, and preserve judicial review of TPS terminations before the Mullin precedent hardens into a rule that no such decision can be challenged[3][4].
Impact on themMembers lost work authorization on August 19, 2026 and became removable[15]. That means lost jobs, lapsed driver's licenses in many states, and families weighing return to a country where fighting continues[3][12].
Frames it asMurphy's own position is narrower than either side's headlines. He distinguishes the test for emergency relief — likelihood of success — from the test for surviving a motion to dismiss — plausibility[4]. Under Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court signaled that equal-protection challenges to TPS terminations are unlikely to win[4]. That controls whether he can keep protections in place now. It does not decide whether the claim is true. Keeping the case alive while denying the stay is, on this reading, following the higher court rather than defying or capitulating to it.
WhyApply binding Supreme Court precedent while preserving a live claim for a full record and final judgment[4].
Impact on themMurphy has been personally targeted in coverage from both directions — cast as a resister who 'caved' by right-leaning sites, and as the judge who cleared the way for deportations by others[8][11][13].
Frames it asAddis Ababa has an interest in being seen as stable and post-conflict, which lines up with the DHS finding[10]. Diaspora and Amhara-linked groups argue the opposite: Fano militia offensives across the Amhara region have run since March 2026, drone strikes have killed civilians, and aid access is restricted[5][16]. For them the U.S. finding reads as a political convenience that a returning TPS holder would pay for.
WhyThe government wants recognition as recovered and open for investment and returns. Diaspora groups want continued U.S. acknowledgment of an active conflict, which supports both protection claims and international pressure[10][16].
Impact on themReturns of several thousand people to a country with restricted aid access and ongoing fighting in some regions, plus a likely drop in remittances from holders who lose work permits[5][16].
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The Bias Ledger average rating 5.6
The same story, as framed by outlets across the spectrum, ordered least to most biased. The bias score (1 = straight, 10 = heavily spun) is an AI assessment of that framing — click an outlet to see its track record. The tell is the word choice or omission that reveals the angle.
| Outlet | Vantage | Bias | How they frame it | The tell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC News | U.S. center to center-left | 2 | "Judge clears way for termination of Ethiopians' temporary protected status" — procedural, no characterization[2]. | Closest to straight wire treatment among the U.S. outlets reviewed. Leads with the court action rather than either side's reaction. |
| CNN | U.S. left of center | 3 | "Judge allows Trump administration to end deportation protections for thousands of Ethiopians" — plain description of the action[1]. | Accurate and restrained headline. Emphasis falls on the number affected and the loss of protection rather than on the surviving equal-protection claim, which softens how narrow the ruling was. |
| Al Jazeera | Qatari state-funded | 4 | "US judge says government can revoke deportation protections for Ethiopians" — sets the ruling in a sequence with Haiti and Syria terminations[3]. | Neutral headline verb. The sequencing with earlier terminations builds a pattern narrative about U.S. treatment of non-white migrants without stating it outright, and DHS's 'de facto amnesty' quote is placed where the reader will weigh it against conflict reporting. |
| Fox News | U.S. right | 6 | Frames the order as a court win for the Trump administration ending deportation protections for Ethiopian migrants; earlier coverage headlined the judge as a 'Biden judge' who 'clashed with ICE'[6][11]. | Identifies the judge by appointing president and prior conflicts with ICE. That is a signal about motive, not about the order. The ruling's actual reasoning — the likelihood-of-success test versus the plausibility test — gets little space. |
| The Washington Times | U.S. right | 7 | "Judge clears Trump administration to end deportation amnesty for roughly one million TPS migrants" — presents the Ethiopia order as the capstone of a complete victory[7]. | The word 'amnesty' is the administration's own term, used unattributed. The headline scales a roughly 5,000-person ruling up to a one-million figure covering all TPS programs, which blurs what this order actually did. |
| The New Republic | U.S. left | 8 | "Judge Allows Trump to Force Out More Black Immigrants With End of TPS"[13]. | Adopts the plaintiffs' racial-discrimination theory as the framing of the ruling itself. 'Force out' asserts a completed outcome; no removals had been carried out at the time of writing. |
| The Gateway Pundit | U.S. right, partisan advocacy | 9 | "Biden Judge Finally Caves to Supreme Court, Lifts Block" — and, earlier, "Mutiny Against the Supreme Court"[8]. | 'Caves' and 'mutiny' are verdicts on the judge's character. The article does not report that Murphy left the equal-protection claim alive, which contradicts the 'caved' framing. |
References
- Judge allows Trump administration to end deportation protections for thousands of Ethiopians — CNN · U.S. commercial network, center-left editorial orientation
- Judge clears way for termination of Ethiopians' temporary protected status — ABC News · U.S. commercial network (Disney), center to center-left
- US judge says government can revoke deportation protections for Ethiopians — Al Jazeera · Funded by the government of Qatar
- Mullin v. Doe, 609 U.S. ___ (2026), No. 25-1083 — Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center · Legal case database, non-partisan primary-source archive
- Ethiopia Travel Advisory (renewed April 1, 2026) — U.S. Department of State · U.S. government primary source
- Judge allows Trump admin to terminate Ethiopia TPS protections — Fox News · U.S. right
- Judge clears Trump administration to end deportation amnesty for roughly one million TPS migrants — The Washington Times · U.S. right; owned by entities linked to the Unification Church movement
- Biden Judge Finally Caves to Supreme Court, Lifts Block on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians — The Gateway Pundit · U.S. right, partisan advocacy blog
- Termination of the Designation of Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status — Federal Register / U.S. Department of Homeland Security · U.S. government primary source
- Ethiopia: U.S. Ends Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopian Nationals, Citing Improved Conditions — allAfrica · Pan-African news aggregator, Mauritius/South Africa based
- Federal judge blocks Trump's move to end Ethiopia TPS protections — Fox News · U.S. right
- Federal Judge Revokes TPS for 5,000 Ethiopian Immigrants — Democracy Now! · U.S. left, listener/foundation-funded independent program
- Judge Allows Trump to Force Out More Black Immigrants With End of TPS — The New Republic · U.S. left, explicitly liberal magazine
- African Communities Together v. Noem, 1:26-cv-10278 (D. Mass.) docket — CourtListener / Free Law Project · Nonprofit court-records archive; primary court documents
- Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia (Release: Aug. 18, 2026) — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services · U.S. government primary source
- World Report 2026: Ethiopia — Human Rights Watch · International rights advocacy organization, foundation and individual funded; critical of most governments including Ethiopia's
- Ethiopia-Fano-TPLF-Abiy-Somalia: Africa File, May 28, 2026 — Critical Threats (American Enterprise Institute) · U.S. think tank-affiliated conflict-monitoring project, generally hawkish/national-security oriented