Judge blocks Trump effort to strip South Sudan deportation protections

A federal judge has vetoed President Donald Trump’s administration’s plan to revoke South Sudanese citizens’ temporary deportation protections.

In a lawsuit brought by a number of South Sudanese nationals and an immigrant rights organization, US District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston, Massachusetts, on Tuesday granted an emergency request.

According to the Trump administration’s request, the temporary protected status (TPS) for South Sudanese citizens won’t expire on January 5.

The US Department of Homeland Security is accused of acting inadvertently in an effort to deport South Sudanese citizens from TPS, a US immigration status granted to citizens of nations experiencing natural disasters, conflict, or other extraordinary circumstances that could make their return to their ancestral homelands risky.

South Sudan’s initial status was recognized in 2011 when it formally seceded from Sudan. In response to frequent fighting, widespread displacement, and regional instability, it has been renewed on occasion.

With the status, those who meet the requirements can work and be temporarily deported.

Further, the lawsuit claimed that the Trump administration had made it known that South Sudanese citizens were subject to deportation in a nation that is regarded as having one of the worst humanitarian crises ever.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, claimed that the nation no longer fulfilled the TPS requirements in a notice released on November 5.

Now is the right time to conclude what was intended to be a temporary designation, she said, appearing to refer to a fragile 2018 peace agreement.

The statement contradicted a panel of experts from the UN Security Council, who claimed in a report to the UN Security Council that “while the contours of the conflict may be altered, the resulting human suffering has remained unchanged.”

According to the report, “some of the communities most affected by renewed fighting have reported pockets of famine in some of the communities most affected by ongoing conflict and aerial bombardments, coupled with flooding and the influx of returnees and refugees from the Sudan.”

As part of its crackdown on immigration and its massive deportation drive, the Trump administration has increasingly targeted TPS.

There have been numerous court challenges as a result of it’s move to repeal TPS for foreigners from nations like Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua.