Trump immigration agenda faces setback as Obama-appointed judge issues fresh TPS stay

By Fox News · Fox News

A Massachusetts federal judge has once again blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, issuing a new administrative stay after plaintiffs rewrote their lawsuit around constitutional claims just days after a federal appeals court threw out similar stays terminating TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, appointed by former President Barack Obama, issued the administrative stay Friday after African Communities Together and other plaintiffs filed an amended complaint alleging the Trump administration violated the Fifth Amendment by terminating Somalia's TPS designation based on racial and national-origin discrimination. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint and emergency motion on Thursday in a renewed bid to keep Somalia's TPS protections alive after the Supreme Court's June ruling in Mullin v. Doe sharply limited lower courts' ability to block TPS terminations. Burroughs' latest order has intensified growing criticism over whether district judges are using administrative stays to work around higher court rulings. It comes just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed similar administrative stays issued by U.S. District Judges Brian Murphy and Patti Saris, who had temporarily delayed the Trump administration's TPS terminations for Ethiopia and South Sudan . LIBERAL COURT STUNS WITH RULING THAT HANDS TRUMP MAJOR IMMIGRATION WIN The First Circuit based its rulings on the Supreme Court's Mullin decision, which ruled lower courts generally cannot block TPS terminations based on non-constitutional claims. The latest order drew an immediate rebuke from DHS General Counsel James Percival, who accused Burroughs of continuing a pattern of judicial obstruction. "Judge Allison Burroughs just entered yet another order preventing the termination of Somalia TPS. There is no serious debate about what is going on in these cases — defiance, obstruction, and delay," Perciv…