A Republican lawmaker is now calling for the impeachment of the federal judge who temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals living in the United States.
Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, arguing that her latest ruling ignored both federal law and recent guidance from the Supreme Court.
Now, stay with me, because the legal backdrop matters here.
On Friday, Burroughs issued a stay preventing the Department of Homeland Security from ending Temporary Protected Status, commonly known as TPS, for Somalis while a lawsuit moves through the courts. The case was brought by African Communities Together, which argues the administration’s decision was motivated by racial discrimination.
TPS is a humanitarian designation that allows people from countries affected by war, armed conflict, or natural disasters to remain temporarily in the United States without facing deportation.
The Trump administration, however, has been moving to end several TPS designations, arguing they were always intended to be temporary rather than permanent immigration programs.
That brings us to Ogles.
His impeachment resolution, first obtained by Fox News Digital, accuses Burroughs of deliberately working around a Supreme Court decision issued just weeks ago.
In June, the Supreme Court significantly limited the ability of lower federal courts to block TPS decisions nationwide. The plaintiffs in the Somali case responded by filing an amended complaint designed to address that ruling, and Burroughs granted the temporary stay based on that revised filing.
Ogles isn’t buying it.
“In issuing this stay, Judge Burroughs attempted to get around the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mullin v. Doe by entertaining spurious allegations of racial and national-origin discrimination against an Administration that has chosen to not renew a single temporary protected status designation,” the resolution states.
He put it even more bluntly in comments to Fox News Digital.
“This judicial activist’s obstruction of the people’s will must be stopped,” Ogles said. “Judge Burroughs must be impeached.”
The Department of Homeland Security is also signaling that its patience with these legal challenges is wearing thin.
“There is no serious debate about what is going on in these cases—defiance, obstruction, and delay,” DHS General Counsel James Percival wrote Friday on X after Burroughs issued the stay.
The Massachusetts federal court did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment regarding Ogles’ impeachment effort.
Now, here’s the thing.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s allies have floated impeachment as a response to judicial rulings they oppose. Earlier efforts targeting U.S. District Judge James Boasberg generated headlines but ultimately stalled after senior House Republicans concluded impeachment was unlikely to succeed and wasn’t the most effective strategy for confronting what they described as activist judges.
That hasn’t stopped conservatives from revisiting the idea.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Republican lawmakers intended to renew efforts this year to challenge federal judges they believe have repeatedly exceeded their constitutional authority by blocking administration policies.
Judge Burroughs, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2014, now finds herself squarely in the middle of that broader campaign.
Whether Ogles’ impeachment resolution gains meaningful traction is another question entirely. Removing a federal judge requires approval by the House and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, making it one of the most difficult actions Congress can take.
