A federal judge on Tuesday halted the Trump administration’s plan to end temporary deportation protections for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States.
US District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request filed by several South Sudanese nationals and the immigrant‑rights group African Communities Together, preventing their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from expiring after January 5 as scheduled.
The ruling marks a temporary win for immigrant advocates and a setback for the administration’s broader effort to scale back the humanitarian program. It is the latest in a series of legal challenges to attempts to end TPS for nationals of several other countries, including Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua.
The lawsuit argued that the Department of Homeland Security’s decision was unlawful and would force migrants back to a country still grappling with severe humanitarian crises.
Judge Kelley appointed by President Joe Biden issued an administrative stay, blocking the policy while the case proceeds. She wrote that allowing the change to take effect before a full review “would result in an immediate impact on the South Sudanese nationals, stripping current beneficiaries of lawful status, which could imminently result in their deportation.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, criticized the ruling, saying it disregarded the president’s constitutional and statutory authority. She added that TPS for South Sudan “was never intended to be a de facto asylum program.”
South Sudan has faced continuous conflict since gaining independence in 2011. Despite a peace deal ending a five‑year civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people, violence persists across much of the country. The US State Department continues to advise Americans not to travel there.
The United States first designated South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status in 2011.
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