A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending deportation protections for more than a thousand Somalis living in the United States, largely because lawyers for the Trump administration had been unprepared to defend it in court.
In a 4-page order, Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts wrote that the government had not filed a brief or even assigned a lawyer to represent the government in the lawsuit seeking to block the order, which had been filed on Monday.
Judge Burroughs, appointed by President Barack Obama, stayed the order indefinitely, writing that it would give the federal government time to prepare and brief the court on the facts of the case.
She wrote that, as of her ruling, the government had not “appeared in the action” — meaning they had not filed a response to the lawsuit or had a lawyer assigned to the case. She also said that the Trump administration had not produced “the certified administrative record on which the court must rely in deciding the merits,” or “filed a brief setting forth their position” on the plaintiff’s emergency motion to keep the deportation protections in place.
Justice Department lawyers have been overwhelmed by the crippling case load involved in defending the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In one extraordinary incident in February, a federal prosecutor told a judge that she would welcome being held in contempt of court because it would allow her to get a good night’s sleep.
Because of the stay, the Somalis will retain the rights and protections of Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to live and work in the United States without risk of deportation. The Trump administration had moved to end the program, which is meant to help migrants who cannot safely return to their home countries because of war or instability, on March 17.
The ruling affects 2,471 Somali nationals, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About 1,380 Somalis in the country have applied for temporary protected status, which allows them to live and work in the United States while their applications are being processed.
The Temporary Protected Status program has been a high-profile target of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. In total, the government has moved to eliminate Temporary Protected Status for more than one million people from eight countries, arguing that it was originally aimed at providing temporary relief and has expanded beyond that original scope.
Judge Burroughs’s ruling offers only temporary relief for those migrants. She indicated in her order that she wanted to move quickly on a more substantive ruling on the facts of the case.
The ruling comes in the aftermath of an aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the state with the largest population of Somalis. After months of high-profile, militarized and chaotic immigration raids that have drawn intense political blowback — particularly over the killings of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents — the Trump administration has scaled back its deportation strategy.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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