The U.S. is ending temporary legal status for citizens of Ethiopia in the United States, according to a government notice, as the President Donald Trump administration continues its crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.

“After reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. government agencies, the secretary determined that Ethiopia no longer continues to meet the conditions for the designation for Temporary Protected Status,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a notice posted in the Federal Register.

Temporary Protected Status is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.

It provides eligible migrants with work authorisation and temporary protection from deportation.

The programme was created in 1991 and, under President Joe Biden, was extended to cover about 600,000 Venezuelans and 521,000 Haitians.

Ms Noem reversed the extensions in February, saying they were no longer justified.

In recent months, the administration has removed the protective status for migrants from numerous countries, including Haiti, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela.

In November, Mr Trump announced the termination of protection for Somalis in Minnesota and
has made controlling immigration a central plank of his second term in the White House.

Cancelling TPS protections is a boost to the administration’s campaign to deport millions of people. The cancellations have been challenged in court.

The Supreme Court in October cleared the way for the administration to revoke TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S., granting a request to put on hold a federal judge’s ruling that Ms Noem lacked the authority to terminate the status while litigation proceeds.

The Homeland Security department also said on Friday it was no longer processing legacy cases under the Cuban and Haitian family reunification parole programme, according to a post in the Federal Register.

Those programmes make it easier for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring family members into the country.

(Reuters/NAN)