Federal judge lifts pause on ending Somali TPS designation, clearing way for deportations

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs imposed the stay after the Supreme Court ruled in June that courts did not have the power to review the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end deportation protections for Syrians and Haitians.

Published: August 14, 2026 8:14pm

A federal judge decided Friday to end her pause on preventing the Trump administration from terminating temporary protected status designations for Somalians, clearing the way for the administration to begin deporting them.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs imposed the administrative stay after the Supreme Court ruled in June that courts did not have the power to review the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end deportation protections for Syrian and Haitian migrants.

Burroughs acknowledged that although the migrants challenging the DHS' decision to end the protections made a compelling case, she was bound by the Supreme Court's decision, according to The Hill.

She also noted that although disparaging remarks the Trump administration has made about Somalis appeared racist, the remarks were not grounds enough under the Supreme Court decision to ban the administration from ending the TPS designation. 

The Supreme Court decision limited the extent disparaging remarks that showed racial animus could be considered.

“Though Plaintiffs lay out a strong case for why the at-issue statements were racist … after Mullin, which included a constitutional race-discrimination claim, the Court cannot discern a path to concluding that Plaintiffs will succeed on the merits of this claim,” she wrote. “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' order is expected to impact 700 TPS designation holders and demonstrates the difficulty for citizens of the remaining TPS countries to challenge the termination of their designation.

Somalia was first given the TPS designation in 1991 and was most recently renewed under the Biden administration.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

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