A Biden-appointed federal judge lifted the final judicial block on the Trump administration's effort to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Ethiopia, meaning TPS terminations across more than a dozen countries are now fully in effect.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy dropped his administrative stay on Tuesday, clearing the way for the Department of Homeland Security to revoke TPS protections for Ethiopian nationals. Murphy had been the last holdout among a handful of district court judges who delayed TPS terminations even after the Supreme Court ruled decisively that such revocations are beyond judicial review. The Washington Examiner reported that Murphy, who sits in Boston, kept one constitutional claim alive for TPS activists but otherwise ended the legal standoff.
DHS General Counsel James Percival announced the decision on X, posting a meme declaring he was "marked safe from TPS judges today" alongside a blunt message:
"Judge Brian Murphy just lifted the stay of Ethiopia TPS termination. All TPS terminations are in effect!"
The post carried a warning that landed harder than any legal brief. DHS followed up with a pointed statement: those whose TPS has been terminated should leave the country now, or face deportation. Fox News reported that DHS posted separately on X: "ALL TPS terminations are now IN EFFECT. Those with terminated TPS should leave NOW. If they don't, we will DEPORT them."
Murphy's decision did not come in a vacuum. It came after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June that the executive branch's decision to revoke TPS is unreviewable by courts in nearly all instances. That ruling, which cleared terminations for Haiti and Syria, gutted the legal foundation that district judges had used to keep TPS protections on life support for months.
The high court left one narrow lane open: constitutional challenges. Murphy used that lane to preserve a single claim filed by TPS activists against the Trump administration. But the broader fight is over. The Supreme Court told lower courts, in plain terms, that TPS revocation is the executive's call, not theirs.
Some judges got the message faster than others. Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, had held up TPS termination for Somalia but lifted her own stay late last week. Murphy was the last to comply. The pattern is worth noting: both judges who dragged their feet longest were appointed by Democratic presidents, and both moved only after the Supreme Court left them no legal ground to stand on.
That dynamic, lower-court judges appointed by Democratic presidents using procedural stays to slow-walk executive immigration policy, has become a recurring flashpoint. It echoes recent warnings about the constitutional risks when officials defy or delay compliance with Supreme Court rulings on immigration.
The Trump administration has terminated TPS for more than a dozen countries. Just The News reported that the affected nations include Somalia, Honduras, Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Venezuela, and others. Ethiopia was the final domino.
TPS, Temporary Protected Status, is a federal designation that allows immigrants from countries hit by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work in the United States without facing deportation. The key word is "temporary." Congress designed the program as a short-term shield, not a permanent residency track. But successive administrations extended TPS designations for years, sometimes decades, turning what was meant to be emergency relief into a de facto indefinite stay for hundreds of thousands of people.
The Trump administration argued that conditions in many designated countries no longer justified the protections, and that the executive branch has sole authority to make that call. The Supreme Court agreed, 6-3.
For taxpayers and lawful immigrants who followed the rules, the ruling restores a basic principle: temporary means temporary. The legal system is not supposed to be a tool for converting emergency designations into permanent residency through judicial delay.
Murphy did not surrender entirely. He kept alive one constitutional claim filed by Ethiopian TPS activists. The substance of that claim is not described in available reporting, and it remains to be seen whether it carries enough weight to produce any practical relief for the plaintiffs. But with the administrative stay lifted, TPS for Ethiopia is terminated while the constitutional question works its way through the courts.
That distinction matters. The activists no longer have a shield. They have a lawsuit, and lawsuits take time, while deportation enforcement does not wait for oral arguments.
The broader legal landscape on immigration continues to shift. Federal appeals courts remain divided over whether the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy for illegal immigrants is lawful, and the Supreme Court is currently weighing petitions on that question. Arguments could come as early as October, when the court's next term begins.
That case could become the next major battleground. And if the court's 6-3 posture on TPS is any guide, the administration enters it with momentum. The judiciary's willingness to clear legal obstacles to immigration enforcement has accelerated in recent months.
Not every federal bench has moved in the same direction, of course. Some judges have continued to push back against the administration on other fronts. But on TPS, the fight is settled.
James Percival's celebratory post, complete with the "marked safe" meme format, drew attention for its tone. Government lawyers do not typically post memes when they win in court. But the frustration behind it is not hard to understand. DHS spent months watching district judges use procedural maneuvers to block a policy the Supreme Court had already blessed. Percival's post was less a victory lap than a pointed reminder of how long the delay lasted.
The broader question raised by the Supreme Court's conservative majority and its willingness to enforce executive authority on immigration is whether lower courts will continue to treat procedural stays as a first resort when they disagree with a policy outcome. The TPS saga suggests the answer is yes, until the Supreme Court tells them to stop.
For now, the legal blockade is gone. Every TPS termination the Trump administration pursued is in effect. Immigrants from more than a dozen countries who held TPS protections face a straightforward choice: leave voluntarily or wait for enforcement to arrive.
When "temporary" finally means temporary, it is not the system breaking. It is the system working the way it was designed.
