A Boston federal judge just removed the final legal obstacle to ending temporary protected status for over 5,000 Ethiopians in the United States, marking the 13th country with TPS status terminated under President Donald Trump’s second term.
Judge Brian Murphy lifted the last administrative stay blocking the termination. Those affected are now in the country illegally and face swift deportation if they don’t leave voluntarily.
The decision represents a significant shift in how the United States administers humanitarian protection programs that have been in place for decades. Temporary Protected Status was originally created by Congress in 1990 to provide a short-term safe haven for foreign nationals unable to return to their home countries due to armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. The program was designed as a temporary measure, though in practice many designations have been repeatedly extended for years or even decades.
The 13 countries stripped of TPS protection include Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the move on social media, declaring the program had been weaponized as a backdoor amnesty scheme. The agency made clear those days are over.
“TPS was used as a defacto amnesty program. Those days are over.”
The administration’s position reflects a long-standing criticism from immigration restrictionists who argue that TPS has strayed far from its original intent. Critics have pointed to countries that received TPS designations decades ago and saw those protections renewed repeatedly, regardless of whether conditions in the home country had stabilized. This pattern, they contend, effectively converted what was supposed to be emergency relief into permanent residency by another name.
The crackdown comes as new data shows refugee admissions under Trump have plummeted to the lowest level since World War II — potentially lower than even COVID-era figures.
During the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026, the U.S. government admitted just 10,258 refugees: 10,255 from South Africa and three from Afghanistan. That’s down from 38,102 in fiscal year 2025 and 100,034 in fiscal year 2024.
The dramatic concentration of admissions from a single country also marks a departure from historical norms. The refugee program has traditionally spread admissions across multiple regions and conflict zones, reflecting America’s role in responding to humanitarian crises worldwide. The current focus on South African refugees represents an unusually narrow approach to refugee resettlement.
The Trump administration set the annual refugee ceiling at 17,500 — the lowest cap since at least the turn of the century, according to Pew Research Center reporting.
The U.S. now admits fewer refugees than Canada and Australia, according to United Nations data cited by Pew. America had consistently ranked among the world’s top two countries for refugee resettlement since World War II.
This represents a historic reversal of American leadership on refugee resettlement. For generations, the United States set the global standard for accepting those fleeing persecution and conflict, working in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle the world’s most vulnerable populations. The reduction in admissions signals a fundamental recalibration of America’s role in the international refugee system.
The shift is saving taxpayers billions. A 2018 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated the annual cost of refugee resettlement at $1.8 billion, ballooning to $8.8 billion over five years when accounting for welfare and government assistance programs.
Each refugee cost taxpayers roughly $79,600 during their first five years in the U.S., the report found.
Refugee funding exploded under the Biden administration. The budget for Refugee and Entrant Assistance programs rose from less than $2 billion in fiscal year 2021 — Trump’s final year in office — to nearly $9 billion the following year under Biden. The influx of Afghan refugees contributed significantly to the spike.
The Afghan refugee surge followed the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which created an immediate need to process and resettle thousands of Afghans who had worked with American forces or faced Taliban persecution. This emergency situation placed unprecedented demands on the resettlement infrastructure and drove costs sharply higher.
Refugees qualify for over a dozen federal benefits, including Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, WIC, Section 8 housing vouchers, Medicaid, federal student aid, and TANF cash assistance. Those who don’t qualify for standard welfare can receive up to 12 months of Refugee Cash Assistance through the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Refugee Support Services also provide childcare, transportation, job training, English language classes, translation services, and case management. Some refugees qualify for small business start-up assistance and immigration legal help to obtain permanent status, according to the Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The comprehensive nature of these benefit programs reflects the recognition that refugees often arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs, having fled persecution or conflict with minimal preparation. The support structure is designed to help refugees become self-sufficient, though the timeline and cost of achieving that goal has been a point of ongoing debate.
Trump’s crackdown is reversing the pattern — cutting both refugee admissions and the taxpayer burden that comes with them.
