A federal court in US has allowed the Trump administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 5,000 Ethiopians in the United States, APA can report on Friday.
This ruling overturns a previous legal block and makes all Temporary Protected Status terminations, including for other nations, effective immediately.
The decision aligns with the supreme court’s earlier move to rescind similar protections for Haitians and Syrians.
The larger report shows that the TPS had been discontinued for over 1 million people currently being protected by the program.
Ethiopia is the final nation where the Trump administration has canceled TPS, which provides protections for persons who have fled their home countries due to exceptional events such as natural disasters or violent conflicts.
The Department of Homeland Security hailed the ruling, stating that all TPS terminations were now effective.
“Every TPS terminations in now in effect,” the department said via its X page.
“For decades, Temporary Protected Status was used as a de facto amnesty program. Those days are OVER. Those with terminated TPS are now in our nation illegally.
Ethiopian advocacy groups that had refuted the elimination of TPS in court expressed disappointment at the current development.
“The crisis in Ethiopia is still ongoing, and this decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the US at severe risk,” Diana Konaté, the group’s deputy executive director of policy and advocacy,” was quoted as saying.
Following conflict in the northern Tigray area of the East African country, former President Joe Biden designated Ethiopia as a TPS recipient in 2022.
At the time, US authorities anticipated that more than 20,000 Ethiopians may qualify if they had resided in the country continuously since October 2022.
The termination occurs as Ethiopia continues to face security concerns.
Although the 2022 Pretoria Agreement ended the terrible Tigray conflict, tensions between the federal government and Tigrayan authorities have revived, with rumors of violence and drone strikes.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has attempted to reconstitute its pre-war regional authority, while the federal government has accused Tigrayan officials of collaborating with Eritrean and Sudanese forces.
MG/as/APA