In a striking rebuke to the current U.S. administration’s immigration overhaul, a federal judge in Boston has halted a push to rescind deportation protections for South Sudanese residents in the United States. The decision keeps in place temporary status for hundreds who have built lives here, at least for now.
At the heart of the dispute is Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — a legal designation designed to shelter people from being forced back to countries enduring war, natural disaster or other upheavals. South Sudanese have relied on this status to work and live legally in the U.S. since it was first granted over a decade ago.
In November, the Department of Homeland Security — led by Secretary Kristi Noem — announced it was ending South Sudan’s TPS designation, asserting that conditions in the East African nation no longer warranted the protection. But Judge Patti Saris, presiding in federal court, found the reasons offered were superficial and masked a broader policy to unwind protections across the board.
Saris pointed out that under Secretary Noem, the government has tried to terminate TPS for more than 10 other countries — including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia — leading her to question whether any nation could ever again qualify. “It is highly likely that no country will pass muster,” she said, signaling skepticism that the criteria are being applied honestly.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by South Sudanese nationals along with a community advocacy group. For the roughly 230 people already benefiting from TPS — as well as dozens with pending applications — the order means those protections remain intact while the legal battle unfolds.
The Department of Homeland Security blasted the decision as an overreach by the judiciary, but supporters of the ruling say it offers crucial breathing room for people who could otherwise find themselves uprooted and sent back to a nation still mired in instability and conflict.
