Temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals residing in the United States is set to end after a federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration's effort to strip these protections.

On Friday, August 7th, 2026, US District Judge Patti Saris of Massachusetts rejected a legal attempt by immigrant rights groups, including African Communities Together, to preserve TPS for South Sudanese nationals. This decision follows a June 2026 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Trump administration to terminate TPS for over 350,000 Haitians and approximately 6,100 Syrians, overturning previous lower court injunctions in New York and Washington DC.

TPS grants eligible individuals from countries experiencing crises such as civil war or environmental disasters temporary permission to live and work legally in the US, along with protection from deportation.

In her 15-page ruling, Saris stated that the plaintiffs’ arguments were "self-contradictory" and "self-defeating," noting that if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacked authority to terminate South Sudan’s TPS designation, it would also have lacked authority to issue it initially.

Following the ruling, James Percival, a DHS general counsel, posted on X that "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."

After the Supreme Court decision, lawyers representing South Sudanese nationals and African Communities Together urged Judge Saris to block the TPS termination on new grounds not addressed by the justices, including the claim that the 1990 statute establishing TPS grants authority to extend or terminate protections only to the attorney general, not DHS.

Sources