Federal Judge Clears Way for Trump Administration to Deport Somali TPS Holders

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday lifted a stay blocking the Trump administration from deporting Somali migrants with temporary protected status, clearing the way for removals to begin.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs lifted an administrative stay she previously imposed after the Supreme Court ruled in a related case that courts lacked the power to review the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to terminate temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haiti and Syria.

Burroughs acknowledged that the Somali plaintiffs challenging the administration had presented a compelling case but said the Supreme Court’s decision left her bound to consider the dispute through what she called the “Mullin prism.”

The reference was to the case bearing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s name that ended TPS for Haiti and Syria.

“Plaintiffs have made a convincing showing that they will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is withheld,” Burroughs wrote.

She also said the balance of hardships and public interest favored the plaintiffs because the government had not demonstrated that maintaining their TPS protections while the litigation continued would create an undue burden.

Despite those findings, the judge concluded that the Supreme Court’s ruling significantly restricted the plaintiffs’ ability to prevail.

Somalia was initially designated for TPS in 1991. The status is granted when the government determines that conditions including civil unrest or a national disaster make it too dangerous to deport migrants to their home country.

The Biden administration most recently redesignated Somalia for TPS, citing widespread and continuing armed conflict.

Friday’s ruling underscores the challenges facing migrants from countries still covered by TPS who seek to fight the Trump administration’s termination of those protections.
Burroughs considered several arguments from the Somali plaintiffs, including claims involving disparaging statements made by Trump administration officials that the plaintiffs argued demonstrated racial animus.

But the Supreme Court’s Mullin decision limited the extent to which such remarks could be considered.

“Though Plaintiffs lay out a strong case for why the at-issue statements were racist,” Burroughs wrote, the Supreme Court decision meant she could not determine a path for the plaintiffs to succeed on their constitutional race-discrimination claim.

The plaintiffs also pointed to several comments Trump made specifically about Somali people, including remarks following a fraud investigation in Minnesota that was followed by widespread immigration raids.

Burroughs said that evidence demonstrated Somalia and its people were being targeted but concluded it was no longer enough to sustain the plaintiffs’ race-based equal protection claim under the Supreme Court precedent.

“This circumstantial evidence clearly shows that Somalia and its people are being targeted, but after Mullin, that is not sufficient to sustain a race-based equal protection claim,” Burroughs wrote.

Approximately 700 TPS holders are affected by Friday’s decision, which removes the administrative stay and allows the Trump administration to begin deportations.