A federal judge has cleared the final courtroom barrier standing between President Trump and the end of a “temporary” immigration program that survived for 35 years.
U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs on Friday granted the federal government’s motions to lift the administrative stay blocking the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Somalia.
She also denied the challengers’ emergency request to postpone the termination and impose a preliminary injunction. The ruling allows the administration’s January termination decision to move forward.
The breaking court result was confirmed Friday afternoon:
JUST IN: Federal Judge clears the way to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis after 35 years.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 14, 2026
This is a major immigration win for the Trump administration.
The program was created by Congress to provide temporary protection from removal and work authorization when conditions in a foreign country make return unsafe. Somalia received its first designation in 1991, and repeated extensions kept it alive for more than three decades.
The U.S. District Court’s order says the legal challengers failed at the most important stage of the preliminary-injunction test: showing they were likely to win their case.
Judge Burroughs concluded that TPS recipients do not have a protected property right to future extensions because the decision to continue or terminate a country’s designation is discretionary. She also ruled that ending the designation does not itself detain or remove anyone, though it can make former beneficiaries subject to future immigration enforcement.
The judge acknowledged that the challengers had made a “strong case” regarding statements they argued showed racial hostility. But she said the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Mullin v. Doe left no path for finding that their race-based claim was likely to succeed.
The court also rejected the argument that the DHS secretary lacked legal authority to terminate TPS. Burroughs concluded that Congress’s creation of DHS and the following reorganization transferred that power from the attorney general to the homeland security secretary.
Back in January, USCIS made the administration’s position unmistakable:
BREAKING: DHS and USCIS are ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia.
Temporary means TEMPORARY.
Somali nationals with TPS are now required to leave the United States by March 17, 2026.https://t.co/kTBIaf4KlW
— USCIS (@USCIS) January 13, 2026
The Federal Register records DHS’s finding that Somalia no longer met the statutory conditions for TPS after the department reviewed country conditions and consulted other federal agencies.
DHS argued that the armed conflict had changed substantially since 1991 and that the violence no longer fully prevented Somali nationals from returning safely. The department also cited national-security, public-safety, fraud, immigration-integrity and foreign-policy concerns.
The official notice estimated that 1,082 people had approved Somalia-based TPS as of December 8, 2025, while another 1,383 applications were pending. It set March 17 as the termination date, but Burroughs placed that action on hold just days before it was due to take effect.
The legal landscape changed on June 25.
In Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court held that the TPS statute’s judicial-review bar blocks courts from considering statutory challenges to a homeland security secretary’s designation and termination decisions. The majority specifically noted that Somalia’s supposedly temporary designation had remained in effect for 35 years.
Burroughs allowed the challengers’ direct constitutional theories to be heard, but found that none was likely to succeed. Because likelihood of success is the controlling requirement for emergency relief, their request failed even though the judge said the other hardship factors favored them.
The White House had celebrated the original termination as an America First action when it was announced:
BREAKING: President Trump ENDS TPS for thousands of Somalis amid massive fraud scandals in Minnesota.
“We are putting Americans first.” – @Sec_Noem pic.twitter.com/ZzoUmL3PkQ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 13, 2026
Friday’s ruling does not by itself order anyone deported, and former TPS beneficiaries may have another lawful status or an individual claim to relief. It does remove the broad administrative stay that prevented DHS from implementing the countrywide termination.
The challengers filed a notice of appeal the same day, so more litigation is likely. But unless an appeals court issues new relief, the stay is gone and President Trump’s administration can finally carry out the termination announced seven months ago.
A program labeled temporary lasted from George H.W. Bush’s presidency through six administrations.
President Trump moved to restore the word to its plain meaning, and the federal court has now cleared the way.
Temporary means temporary — even after 35 years.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.