Trump returned to the White House after making immigration enforcement one of the defining issues of his 2024 campaign.
He promised voters a secure southern border, dramatically higher deportations and an end to programs his administration argues have allowed temporary immigration benefits to become effectively permanent.
Friday’s rulings move that agenda another step forward.
TPS allows qualifying foreign nationals already in the United States to temporarily avoid deportation when their home countries are experiencing war, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances.
Recipients may also receive authorization to work legally in the country while their TPS designation remains active.
But the Trump administration has moved aggressively to terminate several country-specific designations, arguing that the executive branch possesses the authority to determine when those temporary protections are no longer warranted.
DHS moved in November to terminate TPS for South Sudanese and Myanmar nationals.
South Sudan has been covered by the program since 2011 amid prolonged armed conflict. Myanmar received protections following the country’s 2021 military coup and subsequent turmoil.
Roughly 232 South Sudanese nationals and approximately 4,000 people from Myanmar are affected by the administration’s actions.
Immigration organizations went to court seeking to stop the terminations.
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston and U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago had previously issued temporary rulings preventing DHS from immediately moving forward.
The legal landscape, however, shifted after the Supreme Court weighed in on the administration’s broader TPS campaign.
In June, the high court allowed Trump officials to proceed with ending comparable protections covering migrants from Haiti and Syria.
The 6-3 Supreme Court decision also restricted the ability of lower courts to interfere with DHS efforts to unwind TPS programs involving other countries.
Immigration advocates nevertheless continued challenging the South Sudan and Myanmar terminations, contending that federal law did not give DHS the authority to terminate existing TPS designations in the manner pursued by the administration.
Both judges rejected that argument Friday.
Saris concluded that the plaintiffs’ interpretation of federal law would create a much broader problem because it could call into question DHS’s established power not only to terminate TPS protections, but also to extend them.
Kennelly reached a similar conclusion while considering the challenge involving Myanmar nationals.
The twin rulings leave the Trump administration with fewer courtroom obstacles as it attempts to reshape the country’s immigration system.
DHS General Counsel James Percival celebrated the developments and said the administration’s attempts to terminate TPS for Ethiopia and Somalia remain among those still temporarily blocked in federal court.
Percival also urged judges handling other challenges to allow the administration’s policies to take effect.
“Every day these ‘administrative stays’ are in effect is a day the American people are denied what they voted for,” he said.
The comment strikes directly at the political argument the Trump administration has made throughout its immigration battles: voters explicitly demanded a tougher approach when they returned Trump to the presidency.
Immigration was a centerpiece of Trump’s successful 2024 campaign, with the president promising to reverse years of permissive border and asylum policies and restore aggressive enforcement of existing immigration law.
Since returning to office, the administration has pushed to increase deportations, strengthen cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local law enforcement agencies, expand detention capacity and give Immigration and Customs Enforcement greater ability to locate and remove illegal immigrants.
Trump officials have also pursued tighter asylum restrictions, additional border infrastructure and stronger screening procedures for foreigners seeking admission into the United States.
Visa overstays and abuse of humanitarian immigration programs have likewise become targets of the administration’s enforcement strategy.
TPS has emerged as an especially significant battleground.
Although the program is intended to provide temporary refuge during extraordinary conditions abroad, some national designations have remained active through repeated extensions spanning many years.
The administration’s position is that presidents and their DHS officials must retain the ability to determine when those extraordinary protections should end.
Opponents argue that terminating TPS could force migrants to return to countries still struggling with violence, political instability and humanitarian crises.
Those competing arguments have produced a growing series of federal lawsuits.
For now, however, the administration has momentum on its side.
With the Supreme Court having already permitted other TPS terminations to advance and two more federal judges rejecting emergency challenges Friday, Trump’s effort to dramatically narrow temporary immigration protections has secured another important legal victory.
And unless higher courts intervene, thousands more migrants could soon lose both their protection from deportation and their authorization to work in the United States.
