A U.S. federal judge has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to end temporary protected status (TPS) for nearly 4,000 people from Myanmar, presaging their possible arrest and deportation.
In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois rejected last-minute efforts by immigrant rights advocates to maintain the TPS designations. The ruling came just hours after a federal judge in Boston handed down a similar ruling rejecting a challenge from an immigrant-advocacy organization against the removal of TPS status from around 232 South Sudanese nationals.
Both rulings referenced a U.S. Supreme Court decision from June, which ruled that the administration had the authority to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria. The Supreme Court ruling limited lower courts’ ability to block DHS’ efforts to end TPS for people from roughly a dozen countries, arguing that federal judges had no authority to weigh in on a challenge to TPS terminations.
TPS was created by the U.S. Congress in 1990, and protects non-U.S. citizens from deportation to countries facing armed conflict or other crises posing a threat to their safety. It also grants them authorization to work in the U.S.
