A federal judge in Boston has lifted an injunction that had shielded nearly 1,100 Somali nationals from losing their temporary protected status in the United States, giving the Trump administration permission to proceed with revocations.
District Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee who originally blocked the terminations in March, reversed course after the Supreme Court ruled in June that lower courts could not second-guess Department of Homeland Security decisions on TPS designations. Plaintiffs had argued the revocations were racially motivated, citing presidential remarks about Somalis and immigration raids linked to a Minnesota fraud case.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the planned termination in January, arguing conditions in Somalia had improved despite the ongoing conflict with al-Shabaab. Similar rulings last week cleared terminations for South Sudan and Myanmar nationals, while a block on Ethiopia's TPS remains in place. Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991 during its civil war.