A federal judge in Massachusetts this week lifted the last remaining court order that had blocked immigration authorities from deporting nationals of Ethiopia, effectively dismantling the final legal obstacle to removing hundreds of thousands of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that stripped lower courts of the power to review the administration's termination of TPS for Haiti and Syria, and it now clears the way for deportations to all 13 countries whose designations have ended.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now free to carry out removals to Ethiopia, Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Nepal, South Sudan, Burma, Yemen, and Somalia. The four remaining TPS designations are set to expire soon, meaning more than 1.3 million people who once held legal status are either already ineligible or will soon lose it.
“Effectively, this signals the end of the program,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “This is an unprecedented delegalization campaign. It’s the largest effort to strip people of lawful status in U.S. history.”
The Supreme Court’s June decision did not terminate TPS itself but ruled that courts lack jurisdiction to review the administration’s termination decisions. That left only narrow grounds for litigation, and lower courts have now lifted the stays they had imposed, even though many judges had initially sided with TPS holders. James Percival, the top attorney at DHS, celebrated on social media: “Judge Brian Murphy just lifted the stay of Ethiopia TPS termination. All TPS terminations are in effect!” He shared a graphic modeled on Facebook’s “safe” marker, writing he was now “safe from TPS judges today.”
Advocates describe the human toll. Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, recounted the story of a Haitian woman who fled to the U.S. at age 19. “For the first time when she got to the United States, she woke up and was not worried about being kidnapped by armed groups in Haiti. For the first time, she wasn’t worried about seeing a dead body on the street of where she lived. For the first time, she went to bed not hearing gunshots,” Jozef said. “After the termination of TPS, when she saw an ICE car for the first time she felt so unsafe again, fearful that she would be taken by ICE, so the same fear that she had about being kidnapped by armed groups in Haiti came back in the form of being kidnapped by ICE.”
Haitians represent one of the largest TPS groups, with nearly 350,000 protected before the Supreme Court ruling. On Thursday night, the Trump administration conducted its first deportation flight to Haiti since the end of TPS, carrying roughly 170 people, including one of Jozef’s clients. The flight landed in Cap-Haitien, a northern coastal city, because commercial flights into Port-au-Prince remain suspended due to gang violence that routinely targets aircraft.
The State Department has designated Haiti and Syria as “Level 4: Do Not Travel” countries, citing extreme danger. In Haiti, gang violence has spiraled since the 2021 assassination of Prime Minister Jovenel Moïse, leaving a transitional government struggling to maintain order. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who visited Haiti this summer, described areas “like Afghanistan” and called it “probably the poorest place I’ve ever been through in my life.” In Syria, conflict continues after the ouster of Bashar Assad, who used chemical weapons against his own people.
Jozef noted a high-ranking military leader was kidnapped by gangs earlier this summer, underscoring the security vacuum. “If the department that is in charge of protecting the people, they themselves have been kidnapped, how will they be able to protect people being deported to Haiti right now?” she asked. “Even the Department of Defense is unable to defend themselves against the armed groups in Haiti right now.”
The end of TPS has reignited debate over the administration’s enforcement priorities. A recent poll found that half of Americans, including 24% of Trump voters, view the deportation push as too harsh. Meanwhile, immigration enforcement has touched even high-profile figures, as seen in the detention of a Padres coach by ICE at El Paso airport. Critics also point to broader concerns about data sharing, with Senate Democrats alleging HHS violated a court order by sharing Medicaid data with ICE.
With the legal path exhausted, TPS holders and their advocates are left to confront an uncertain future. “It’s been an incredibly difficult, painful time,” Jozef said, reflecting on the months since the Supreme Court ruling. “It’s been a difficult day, week, month, and year.”
