Federal judge blocks Trump admin from ending TPS for Somali migrants despite SCOTUS ruling

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia after federal appeals courts threw out similar stays that terminate TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts, an Obama appointee, issued an administrative stay preserving TPS protections for Somali nationals while the court considers whether the plaintiffs may pursue constitutional claims following a Supreme Court ruling issued in June.

The Supreme Court had ruled in a June decision with Mullin v. Doe to narrow the authority of lower courts to block the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decisions regarding TPS designations. However, the complaint was amended in a renewed bid to keep Somalis’ TPS protections after the SCOTUS decision.

Burroughs ruling brought a response from DHS General Counsel James Percival on X, who said, "Judge Allison Burroughs just entered yet another order preventing the termination of Somalia TPS. There is no serious debate about what is going on in these cases — defiance, obstruction, and delay.”

"I looked at the amended complaint in the Somalia TPS case," Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan wrote on X. "The district judge has entered a novel 'administrative stay' to sort out the claims. She has declared the TPS termination 'void' for now, while deciding whether any of the claims can justify a more permanent pause."

The plaintiffs have argued that their amended complaint is a completely different argument than those legal arguments that were previously rejected by the First Circuit, which based its ruling on the SCOTUS decision.

African Communities Together and other plaintiffs alleged that the decision from the administration to withdraw TPS from Somalia was in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

The Supreme Court’s ruling altered the course of the litigation by holding that lower courts generally cannot hear Administrative Procedure Act challenges to DHS decisions to designate or terminate TPS. But the Supreme Court left open whether constitutional claims could proceed. The plaintiffs then revised their complaint around those arguments.