A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked plans by the Trump administration to end deportation protections for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States under a humanitarian program.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request to prevent the Temporary Protected Status granted to South Sudan from expiring as scheduled after Jan. 5. Kelley, appointed by President Joe Biden, issued an administrative stay that halts the termination pending further litigation.
The ruling came after four South Sudanese migrants and the nonprofit group African Communities Together sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit argues the agency’s decision was unlawful and would expose people to deportation to a country facing severe humanitarian crises.
Kelley wrote that allowing the termination to proceed before courts could review the case would strip beneficiaries of lawful status and could “imminently result in their deportation.”
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the ruling ignored the administration’s constitutional and statutory authority, adding that TPS “was never intended to be a de facto asylum program.”
South Sudan has been designated for TPS since 2011, following its independence from Sudan. The status is available to people from countries experiencing natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary conditions, providing work authorization and protection from deportation.
The lawsuit states about 232 South Sudanese nationals are current beneficiaries, with another 73 applications pending.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem published a notice Nov. 5 terminating TPS for South Sudan, saying the country no longer met the conditions. The department has moved to end similar protections for nationals from Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, prompting multiple legal challenges.
A DHS spokesperson said before the ruling that with “renewed peace” and improved diplomatic relations, it was time to conclude a “temporary designation.”
The lawsuit contends the termination violated the TPS statute, ignored ongoing dire conditions in South Sudan and was motivated by racial discrimination in violation of the 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,” said Diana Konaté of African Communities Together.
South Sudan remains ravaged by conflict. Fighting has persisted in much of the country since the end of a five-year civil war in 2018 that killed an estimated 400,000 people. The U.S. State Department advises against travel there.