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A liberal-led federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump two immigration victories Wednesday, reversing separate district court orders that had delayed the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The judgments from the First Circuit Court of Appeals come after U.S. District Judges Brian Murphy and Patti Saris issued back-to-back orders temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan, respectively, late last week. The rulings drew sharp criticism from legal experts and Trump administration officials, who called the judges “rogue” and argued their decisions defied the Supreme Court.
The three-judge First Circuit panel consisted of Judges Julie Rikelman and Seth Aframe, both appointed by President Joe Biden, and Judge Joshua Dunlap, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.
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President Donald Trump during an announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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In nearly identical rulings, the majority liberal panel found that the lower court judges’ orders conflicted with the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe, which held that courts cannot block TPS terminations based on non-constitutional claims.
“Mullin held that ‘the TPS statute’s judicial-review bar applies to all non-constitutional claims’ challenging the Secretary of Homeland Security’s determination with respect to the termination of a TPS designation,” the judges wrote.
Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan told Fox News Digital that the First Circuit correctly applied the precedent established by the Supreme Court.
“These are clear wins for President Trump following his big win at the U.S. Supreme Court, explaining that district courts are not supposed to second guess TPS terminations, and even as this plays out, we’re moving towards the end of this litigation because district courts should not be hearing these disputes, and that’s what the Supreme Court said,” Wessan told Fox News Digital.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from the media during a bilateral meeting with President of Lebanon Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office of the White House on July 21, 2026, in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris attends the opening ceremony for the Justice Stephen G. Breyer Community Learning Center on Courts and the Constitution at the federal courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, March 25, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Brian Snyder/Reuters)
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A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson welcomed the rulings as “a win for the rule of law and common sense.”
“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that—temporary,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”
The lawsuits were brought by African Communities Together, a New York-based immigrant advocacy organization that serves as the lead plaintiff in both cases, alongside individual TPS recipients from Ethiopia and South Sudan. The plaintiffs argue DHS unlawfully ended the protections in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, alleging the agency failed to properly assess conditions in the two countries and that the decisions were motivated by racial discrimination.
Murphy and Saris temporarily blocked the Trump administration from terminating TPS last week, issuing procedural orders to preserve the status quo while they considered whether the plaintiffs should be permitted to amend their complaints to pursue renewed constitutional claims.
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While the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe foreclosed most statutory challenges to TPS terminations, it left open the possibility that courts could consider claims alleging constitutional violations.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy temporarily blocked key Trump administration decisions to terminate Temporary Protected Status. (United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary/ REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
However, Wessan said the district judges were operating outside the “legal bounds” by blocking the TPS terminations before any constitutional claims had been established.
“If they want to let the plaintiffs amend their complaint, they’re allowed to do that, but in the meantime, TPS is over,” Wessan told Fox News Digital.
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The First Circuit’s decisions mark the latest setback for Murphy and Saris after the Trump administration accused both judges of effectively sidestepping the Supreme Court’s June ruling. After Murphy’s order, DHS General Counsel James Percival wrote on X that the district judge was engaged in “mutiny against the Supreme Court,” while he described Saris’ ruling as “open defiance” of the justices’ decision.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Murphy and Saris for comment.
