Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Plan to End Somali Temporary Protected Status

A federal judge in Massachusetts has once again halted the Trump administration’s effort to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, granting an administrative stay Friday following a revised lawsuit centered on constitutional grounds. The decision from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs came days after a federal appeals court invalidated similar stays issued by two other district judges involving Ethiopia and South Sudan.

African Communities Together and allied plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Thursday asserting that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Fifth Amendment by terminating Somalia’s TPS designation through race and national-origin discrimination. The filing represented a strategic recalibration after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Mullin v. Doe substantially curtailed lower courts’ authority to block TPS terminations based on non-constitutional arguments.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed administrative stays issued by judges Brian Murphy and Patti Saris, grounding those reversals in the Supreme Court’s Mullin precedent, which prohibits district courts from blocking TPS terminations on non-constitutional grounds. Burroughs’ latest order has drawn scrutiny regarding whether such judicial stays circumvent higher court decisions.

James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, promptly criticized Burroughs’ ruling as part of an ongoing pattern of judicial obstruction. Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan argued that four of five claims in the amended complaint are foreclosed by Mullin and characterized the remaining claim as frivolous.

The plaintiffs argue their revised lawsuit presents a distinct case, pointing to a November 2025 Truth Social post in which President Trump announced the TPS termination months before DHS completed its statutory review. They contend this predetermined decision deprived Somali nationals of due process protections mandated by the Fifth Amendment.

The complaint further alleges the administration targeted Somali nationals based on race and national origin, citing Trump’s prior characterizations of Somali immigrants as criminals and gang members with low intelligence. The plaintiffs reference Trump’s stated opposition to their entry and his expressed preference for white immigrants, contrasting these statements with protections afforded white Afrikaner refugees from South Africa.