Judge Approves Trump Bid to End South Sudan TPS
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- Judge Patti Saris ruled Friday that DHS can terminate South Sudan's TPS, rejecting a challenge from African Communities Together and other immigrant rights groups on what she called a "self-contradictory" legal foundation.
- The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June to let the administration strip TPS from roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians—the precedent Saris followed in declining to block the South Sudan termination.
- DHS moved in November to end South Sudan's TPS, originally granted in 2011; the ruling would strip protections from 232+ South Sudanese nationals and at least 73 with pending applications.
- Saris rejected the argument that only the attorney general—not DHS—holds TPS termination authority, writing that Congress transferred that power when DHS was created in 2002 after the September 11 attacks.
- DHS general counsel James Percival declared on X that "every other TPS judge must do the same," calling continued administrative stays a denial of what "the American people voted for."
- TPS holders have paid $7.8bn in annual taxes and contributed $262bn to the US economy since 2001, per Fwd.us, with many working in construction, hospitality, and healthcare—sectors already facing worker shortages.
- The State Department maintains highest-level travel warnings for South Sudan, Haiti, and Syria—the very countries whose nationals are now losing deportation protections.
Why it matters: South Sudan has lost over 400,000 people to civil war since 2011, yet the US is now stripping deportation protections for South Sudanese immigrants. TPS holders collectively pay $7.8bn in annual taxes and contribute $262bn to the US economy, with many working in healthcare, construction, and hospitality—sectors already short on workers. The State Department maintains highest-level travel warnings for the very countries losing TPS protections.
