Lead image for How over 5,000 Ethiopian immigrants lost their work and residency rights in the US.
A federal judge allowed US President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday to end legal protections granted to over 5,000 Ethiopians that have allowed them to live and work in the United States.
US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston lifted the last judicial block on the US Department of Homeland Security terminating the Temporary Protected Status designation for individual countries after the US Supreme Court allowed the administration in June to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria.
The Supreme Court's ruling, backed 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.
James Percival, DHS' general counsel, hailed the decision in a social media post. "All TPS terminations are in effect!" he wrote.
Lives at risk: advocacy group
The termination of Ethiopia's TPS designation had been challenged by several Ethiopian nationals and the advocacy group African Communities Together, which expressed disappointment in Tuesday's ruling.
"The crisis in Ethiopia is still ongoing, and this decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the US at severe risk," said Diana Konaté, the group's deputy executive director of policy and advocacy.