The Trump administration has ended a provision that allowed Ethiopian nationals escaping unsafe conditions to live in the United States temporarily, issuing them 60 days to voluntarily leave the country or be faced with sudden deportation.
“Conditions in Ethiopia no longer pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Ethiopian nationals,” a spokesperson for the immigration arm of the Department of Homeland Security said in an announcement Friday. “Since the situation no longer meets the statutory requirements for a TPS designation, Secretary [Kristi] Noem is terminating this designation to restore integrity in our immigration system.”
The move is the latest by the Trump administration to limit the scope of programs that offer protective immigration pathways on a country-by-country basis.
Ethiopia was granted temporary protected status — which allows foreign-born nationals from countries facing severely unsafe conditions to live and work legally in the U.S. until conditions in their home country improve — by the Biden administration in 2022 because of ongoing armed conflict in the eastern African country.
The protective status was extended in the spring of 2024 by then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who cited “extraordinary and temporary conditions in Ethiopia that prevent individuals from safely returning.”
That Biden-era extension expired Friday, and without renewal, the more than 4,500 Ethiopian nationals who live in the U.S. under temporary protective status face a Feb. 13 deportation deadline.
“After Feb. 13, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security may arrest and deport any Ethiopian national without status after their TPS has been terminated,” Noem said Friday. “If an alien forces DHS to arrest and remove them, they may never be allowed to return to the United States.”
The Trump administration stripped the same protective status for Burmese and Haitian nationals last month, and declined to renew the measure for nationals of numerous other countries, including Venezuela, Syria, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cameroon and South Sudan. The efforts to remove the protections have been the subject of a cascade of legal challenges, with federal judges ordering the administration to pause the termination of TPS for nationals of vulnerable countries on several occasions. Noem encouraged Ethiopian nationals to report their self-deportation using a Customs and Border Protection mobile app launched by the Trump administration in May to encourage voluntary deportation. It promises a free flight to any foreign country and a $1,000 “exit bonus,” along with the possibility of return to the U.S. for eligible immigrants. “As long as it’s not here, you can go anywhere you want,” Trump said during the app’s unveiling.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
