By Nate Raymond
FILE PHOTO: View of sign of U.S. Homeland Security Department in Washington
BOSTON, March 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from ending legal protections next week that have allowed nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued an order postponing the March 17 effective date of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants.
Burroughs, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, cited the "weighty" consequences that would result if she did not act now to pause the end of TPS for the Somalis while their lawsuit continues.
"Plaintiffs aver that if Somalia's TPS designation is allowed to terminate, over one thousand people will face 'a myriad of grave risks,' including detention and deportation, physical violence if removed to Somalia, and forced separation from family members," the judge wrote.
She administratively stayed the effective date and set a schedule so she could resolve the Somalis' request for a longer-term block of DHS' action "as quickly as possible."
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DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Temporary Protected Status is a form of humanitarian immigration protection that shields eligible migrants from deportation and allows them to work. Under Trump, the DHS has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries, sparking numerous legal challenges.
Burroughs ruled as the administration continues to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it will lift lower-court orders in two other cases that have blocked it from ending TPS for over 350,000 Haitians and about 6,000 Syrians.
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced that TPS for Somalis would end on March 17, arguing that Somalia's conditions had improved, despite ongoing fighting between Somali forces and al-Shabaab militants.
Four Somalis and the advocacy groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans sued, arguing the move was procedurally flawed and driven by a discriminatory, predetermined agenda.
They said the administration is ending TPS for Somalia and other countries due to unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, not based on objective assessments of country conditions. They pointed to a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as "garbage" and "low IQ people."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Franklin Paul, Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
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