Legal Setback for White House as US Judge Blocks Plan to End South Sudan Migrant Protections
In a significant legal setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge in Boston has intervened to protect hundreds of South Sudanese nationals from the imminent threat of deportation. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley granted an emergency request, blocking the administration’s plan to terminate their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as scheduled for January 5th.
The ruling offers a temporary but critical victory for four South Sudanese migrants and the advocacy group African Communities Together, who filed a lawsuit arguing the termination was both unlawful and inhumane. Judge Kelley, in issuing an administrative stay, agreed that allowing the policy to proceed before the courts could fully review the case would cause immediate and irreparable harm, stripping beneficiaries of their lawful status and exposing them to imminent deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Kristi Noem, had announced the termination in early November, claiming conditions in South Sudan no longer warranted the special designation. The program, initiated in 2011 following the country’s independence, offers work authorization and deportation protection to migrants from nations facing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances.
The lawsuit challenges that assessment, pointing to the persistent and dire humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. A brutal five-year civil war that ended in 2018 left an estimated 400,000 dead, and conflict and instability continue to ravage the world’s youngest nation. The U.S. State Department maintains a “Do Not Travel” advisory for the country.
Advocates argue the termination violates the statute governing TPS by ignoring these ongoing conditions. The lawsuit further alleges the move is part of a broader, discriminatory agenda targeting non-white immigrants, stating it violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.
“This mass deportation agenda,” said Diana Konate of African Communities Together, “aims to remove as many Black and Brown immigrants from this country as quickly and as cruelly as possible.”
The ruling represents the latest obstacle to the administration’s concerted effort to wind down TPS protections for several countries, including Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua. A DHS spokesperson countered that the judge’s order ignored presidential authority and argued TPS was “never intended to be a de facto asylum program.”
For now, the roughly 232 current South Sudanese TPS holders and 73 applicants with pending cases can breathe a temporary sigh of relief. The stay ensures their protection remains while the judiciary examines the heart of the dispute: whether sending people back to a nation still gripped by violence and crisis aligns with American law and conscience.
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