Judge clears Trump to end South Sudan TPS
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- Judge Patti Saris rejected an effort by African Communities Together and others to block the termination of TPS for South Sudanese nationals in a 15-page ruling, writing that plaintiffs' arguments rested on a 'self-contradictory, self-defeating foundation' — if DHS lacked authority to terminate TPS, it also lacked authority to issue it originally.
- The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June allowing the Trump administration to strip TPS from more than 350,000 Haitians and approximately 6,100 Syrians, overturning lower court blocks; Saris's ruling applies that precedent to South Sudan.
- The DHS moved in November to terminate South Sudan's TPS designation, first issued in 2011, affecting more than 232 South Sudanese TPS holders and at least 73 with pending applications; Saris had previously blocked the termination from taking effect.
- Plaintiffs argued DHS lacked termination authority because the 1990 TPS statute named only the attorney general, but Saris — a Clinton appointee — concluded Congress transferred that authority to DHS when the department was established in 2002 after the September 11 attacks.
- DHS General Counsel James Percival wrote on X after the ruling: 'Every other TPS judge must do the same! Every day these administrative stays are in effect is a day the American people are denied what they voted for.'
- Global Refuge CEO Krish O'Mara Vignarajah said South Sudan is 'on the brink of a return to an all-out civil war,' with roughly 10 million people — about two-thirds of the population — dependent on humanitarian aid, calling the termination 'the administration's deliberate choice.'
- The US State Department maintains highest-level travel warnings for South Sudan, Haiti, and Syria, even as the Trump administration strips TPS from nationals of all three; since 2001, TPS holders have paid $7.8 billion annually in taxes and contributed $262 billion to the US economy, according to Fwd.us.
Why it matters: The ruling removes a legal shield for roughly 232 South Sudanese TPS holders and 73 pending applicants, exposing them to potential deportation to a country where two-thirds of the population relies on humanitarian aid and the State Department warns Americans against travel. The DHS general counsel's public call for other TPS judges to follow suit signals the administration is exporting this legal template across every active TPS case nationwide.
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