Key facts
- A federal judge has allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for South Sudanese nationals.
- U.S. District Judge Patti Saris rejected a legal challenge to maintain TPS.
- The ruling implies that if DHS lacked authority to terminate TPS, it also lacked authority to issue it.
- The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Trump administration to end similar protections for Haitians and Syrians.
- DHS had argued South Sudan no longer met the conditions for TPS, which was first issued in 2011.
- The decision impacts over 232 South Sudanese nationals and at least 73 with pending applications.
A federal judge in Massachusetts has permitted the U.S. government to end temporary deportation protections for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals, rejecting a legal challenge from immigrant-rights advocates. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to terminate the country's Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation.
The decision follows a June Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Trump administration to end similar protections for thousands from Haiti and Syria, curtailing lower courts' ability to review such decisions. The Supreme Court's conservative majority found that the statute creating the TPS program in 1990 had implicitly transferred authority over its extension and termination to DHS when the department was established in 2002.
DHS had moved to terminate TPS for South Sudan in November, stating the country no longer met the conditions for the designation, which was first granted in 2011. This action would have ended protections for over 232 South Sudanese nationals and at least 73 with pending applications, an order previously blocked by Saris.
Lawyers for the South Sudanese plaintiffs argued that DHS lacked authority because the 1990 statute only named the attorney general as the official with power over TPS. However, Saris concluded that Congress had transferred this authority to DHS. She stated that if DHS had no authority to terminate TPS, it also never had the ability to extend protections, rendering the original designation invalid.
James Percival, DHS's general counsel, urged other judges to follow Saris's lead and lift similar orders, stating that "Every day these 'administrative stays' are in effect is a day the American people are denied what they voted for."