Aug 14 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to strip nearly 1,100 Somalis of legal protections against deportation that have allowed them to live and work in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston allowed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to terminate the Temporary Protected Status designation for Somalia after the U.S. Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, powered by its 6-3 conservative majority, curtailed the ability of judges to review DHS efforts under Trump to end TPS designations for 13 countries that provided humanitarian immigration protection to eligible migrants from those nations.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Two other judges last week allowed the administration to similarly end TPS for South Sudan and Myanmar. Only the end of TPS for Ethiopia remains blocked by a judge.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced plans to end TPS for Somalis, arguing Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite ongoing fighting between Somali forces and al-Shabaab militants.
Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, in March blocked Noem’s decision from taking effect in a lawsuit brought by four Somalis and two advocacy groups including African Communities Together.
The plaintiffs argued the administration sought to end TPS for Somalia due to bias against non-white immigrants, pointing to Trump’s past descriptions of Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people.”
After the Supreme Court ruled, Burroughs issued a new order that continued to temporarily block the end of the Somalis’ TPS while she considered whether to allow the plaintiffs to try to challenge DHS action on grounds the Supreme Court’s ruling did not address.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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