First Circuit Clears Path for Trump Administration to End TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan

A federal appeals court has reversed lower-court orders that had blocked the Trump administration from terminating Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Ethiopia and South Sudan, clearing the way for the Department of Homeland Security to proceed with ending the designations.

In decisions issued this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit granted the government’s request for summary reversal of district court postponements of the TPS terminations. The appeals court relied on the Supreme Court’s June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which held that the Temporary Protected Status statute bars judicial review of all non-constitutional challenges to the Homeland Security secretary’s decisions on designations and terminations. The First Circuit determined that the plaintiffs’ claims in both the South Sudan and Ethiopia cases were statutory challenges of the type the high court had foreclosed. The cases were remanded to the district court in Massachusetts for consideration of any remaining constitutional claims that may have been preserved.

Temporary Protected Status allows eligible nationals of designated countries to remain and work in the United States temporarily when conditions in their home countries—such as ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary circumstances—make safe return impossible. Successive administrations have designated and periodically redesignated or terminated TPS for various countries based on reviews of country conditions. The Trump administration, through former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and current Secretary Markwayne Mullin, determined after reviewing conditions that neither South Sudan nor Ethiopia continued to meet the statutory criteria for TPS. Termination of South Sudan’s designation had been scheduled to take effect in early 2026; Ethiopia’s was set for February 13, 2026.

Lower-court orders issued earlier this year by judges in the District of Massachusetts had stayed those terminations at the request of advocacy groups and individual plaintiffs, keeping the protections and associated work authorization in place for affected individuals while litigation continued. The First Circuit’s reversals lift those blocks with respect to the non-constitutional claims. The appeals court noted that DHS is no longer enjoined by the prior postponement orders from ending TPS for the two countries, subject to any further proceedings on constitutional issues in the district court.

The Supreme Court’s Mullin decision has had broader effects on similar challenges involving other countries’ TPS designations. Advocacy organizations and some district judges have sought to continue litigation by amending complaints to focus solely on constitutional theories, and administrative stays have been entered in certain cases to maintain the status quo pending those reviews. Immigration advocates have expressed concern that the rulings increase uncertainty and fear among TPS holders. The administration has maintained that the decisions restore the executive branch’s statutory authority to make country-condition determinations without prolonged judicial second-guessing of non-constitutional questions.The number of individuals affected is relatively modest compared with larger TPS populations from other countries: roughly a few thousand Ethiopians and several hundred South Sudanese nationals were estimated to hold the status under the designations at issue. Their continued eligibility, employment authorization, and potential pathways to other forms of relief will depend on the outcome of any remaining district-court proceedings and any subsequent administrative or legislative actions. The First Circuit’s rulings mark another application of the Supreme Court’s limitation on judicial review in the TPS context and remove a key procedural obstacle to the administration’s planned terminations.