US Judge Blocks Trump Administration Move to End Deportation Protections for South Sudanese
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to end temporary protections from deportation for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States.
US District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request from several South Sudanese migrants and an immigrant rights group, preventing their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from expiring after January 5 while the case proceeds.
The ruling marks a temporary victory for immigrant advocates and a setback for the administration’s broader push to scale back the humanitarian program. It is the latest legal challenge to efforts to end TPS for nationals of other countries, including Syria, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua.
The lawsuit was filed by four South Sudanese migrants and the nonprofit African Communities Together, who argued that the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully and exposed them to deportation to a country still grappling with severe humanitarian crises.
Kelley, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, issued an administrative stay, writing that allowing the policy to take effect before the court could review the case “would result in an immediate impact on the South Sudanese nationals, stripping current beneficiaries of lawful status,” and could quickly lead to deportations.
In response, Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the ruling ignored President Donald Trump’s constitutional and statutory authority, adding that TPS for South Sudanese nationals “was never intended to be a de facto asylum program.”
South Sudan has been plagued by conflict since gaining independence in 2011. Although a five-year civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people ended in 2018, violence continues in parts of the country, and the US State Department advises against travel there.
The United States first designated South Sudan for TPS in 2011. The program grants eligible migrants work authorization and temporary protection from deportation when their home countries face armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions.
According to the lawsuit, about 232 South Sudanese nationals currently hold TPS in the United States, with another 73 applications pending.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of South Sudan’s TPS designation in a notice published on November 5, arguing that conditions in the country no longer justified the status.
The lawsuit contends the decision violated federal law governing TPS, ignored ongoing humanitarian dangers in South Sudan, and was motivated by discrimination against non-white migrants, in violation of the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
“The singular aim of this mass deportation agenda is to remove as many Black and Brown immigrants from this country as quickly and as cruelly as possible,” Diana Konate, deputy executive director of policy and advocacy at African Communities Together, said in a statement.
