President Donald Trump’s administration scored a significant legal victory Friday after an Obama-appointed federal judge cleared the way for the government to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals living in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs denied an emergency request from Somali nationals and immigration advocacy groups seeking to prevent the Department of Homeland Security from ending Somalia’s TPS designation.
Burroughs, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama, also granted the government’s requests to lift an administrative stay that had temporarily prevented the termination from taking effect.
The ruling means the Trump administration can move forward with ending the longstanding protections while litigation continues.
Temporary Protected Status, commonly known as TPS, allows eligible foreign nationals already living in the United States to remain and obtain work authorization when the Department of Homeland Security determines conditions in their home country temporarily prevent their safe return.
Congress created the program through the Immigration Act of 1990.
Countries can receive TPS designations because of armed conflict, environmental disasters or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
Somalia has continuously held a TPS designation since 1991, initially because of extraordinary conditions and later also because of ongoing armed conflict.
The Department of Homeland Security announced in January that it was terminating Somalia’s designation, determining that conditions had improved sufficiently for the country to no longer satisfy the statutory requirements for TPS.
The termination was originally scheduled to take effect March 17.
The decision affected Somali nationals currently protected by the program, although figures cited in reports have differed regarding the precise number of people potentially affected.
Four Somali nationals, African Communities Together and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans subsequently sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Burroughs issued an administrative stay in March that temporarily prevented the administration from implementing the termination while the legal challenge proceeded.
The dispute was later paused as the courts awaited a potentially consequential Supreme Court decision involving the federal government’s authority over TPS designations.
That decision arrived June 25.
The Supreme Court held that federal law prevents judicial review of nonconstitutional claims challenging a homeland security secretary’s decision to designate, extend or terminate a foreign country’s TPS status.
The statute provides that there is “no judicial review of any determination” made by the secretary regarding “the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state.”
The Supreme Court also concluded that an equal-protection challenge involving the administration’s termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was unlikely to succeed, per Trending Politics.
The ruling cleared the way for the administration to terminate TPS protections for approximately 350,000 Haitians and roughly 6,000 Syrians.
Following the Supreme Court decision, the Trump administration asked Burroughs to lift the stay covering Somalia.
The plaintiffs amended their complaint, focusing on constitutional arguments under the Fifth Amendment, including equal-protection and due-process claims. They also argued that the secretary lacked statutory authority to terminate Somalia’s designation.
Burroughs initially maintained temporary relief while considering the revised arguments.
On Friday, however, she denied the plaintiffs’ emergency motion seeking postponement of the agency action and a preliminary injunction.
Burroughs acknowledged that the consequences for the plaintiffs could be severe.
“Plaintiffs have made a convincing showing that they will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is withheld,” the judge wrote.
She also found that other factors weighed in their favor.
“The balance of hardships and the public interest also favor Plaintiffs, given that the government has made no showing that maintaining TPS status for the duration of this litigation would impose an undue burden,” Burroughs wrote.
Those findings were ultimately insufficient to keep the administration’s policy blocked.
Burroughs said she was “bound … to view things through the Mullin prism,” referring to the Supreme Court decision that altered the legal landscape surrounding TPS challenges.
To secure a preliminary injunction, plaintiffs generally must demonstrate, among other factors, that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their case.
Burroughs concluded that the Somali plaintiffs had failed to satisfy that critical requirement in light of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law.
The judge therefore denied their request for an injunction and lifted the administrative stay.
The decision represents another victory for the Trump administration as it moves to terminate TPS designations that officials argue are no longer justified by current conditions.
While the underlying lawsuit is not necessarily over, Friday’s ruling removes the barrier that had prevented the administration from proceeding with its termination of Somalia’s TPS designation.
