US Ends Work Protection for Ethiopians, Somalis, S Sudanese
Thousands of citizens from Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan working legally in the United States are set to lose their jobs and face possible deportation after the Trump administration moved to end temporary immigration protections that have allowed them to live and work in the country for years.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has instructed employers to reverify the employment eligibility of workers from the affected countries before July 17, when their Temporary Protected Status (TPS)-based work authorization is due to expire.
Workers who fail to present new authorisation after the deadline must be removed from company payrolls in line with US immigration law.
The decision is part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown aimed at scaling back humanitarian protections that his administration says have been repeatedly extended beyond their original intent.
Temporary Protected Status was created by Congress in 1990 to shield nationals of countries affected by war, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises from deportation while conditions in their home countries remained unsafe.
The programme grants beneficiaries temporary permission to live and work in the United States but does not provide a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship.
Somalia has remained under TPS protection for more than three decades after the collapse of its central government and years of armed conflict. South Sudan was granted the status in 2016 following the outbreak of civil war, while Ethiopia joined the programme in 2022 after conflict in the northern Tigray region triggered one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises.
Successive US administrations, both Republican and Democratic, repeatedly renewed the designations, arguing that instability, violence and humanitarian emergencies continued to make it unsafe for beneficiaries to return home.
The Trump administration, however, says the programme has drifted far from its original purpose as a temporary humanitarian measure, with repeated renewals effectively allowing many migrants to remain in the United States indefinitely. Administration officials have argued that ending the protections is necessary to restore the integrity of the immigration system and enforce existing immigration laws.
The move is expected to affect thousands of workers employed across sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, construction, hospitality and food processing, where TPS holders have become an important part of the labour force.
Businesses employing affected workers have been advised that employees whose work permits expire without renewal can no longer be legally employed after July 17, potentially triggering a wave of dismissals across the country.
Immigrant rights groups have condemned the decision, warning that it will separate families, deepen labour shortages and force people back to countries that continue to grapple with insecurity, political instability and humanitarian crises.
The termination of TPS for the three African nations marks one of the most significant rollbacks of humanitarian immigration protections since Trump returned to office, reinforcing his administration’s broader pledge to tighten immigration controls and accelerate deportations.
gandae@businessdayafrica.org