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 organizations, including the New York-based African Communities Together, to preserve TPS for South Sudanese nationals living in the US.

This ruling follows a June 2026 Supreme Court decision, in a 6-3 vote, that allowed the Trump administration to terminate TPS for more than 350,000 Haitians and approximately 6,100 Syrians. The conservative majority overturned lower court rulings in New York and Washington DC that had previously blocked the administration from ending these protections.

TPS permits eligible individuals from countries experiencing crises such as civil war or environmental disasters to remain temporarily in the US, protecting them from deportation and allowing them to work legally.

In her 15-page ruling, Judge 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 decision, James Percival, a DHS general counsel, commented on X (formerly Twitter): "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 ruling, lawyers representing South Sudanese nationals and African Communities Together urged Judge Saris to block the TPS termination on new legal grounds not addressed by the justices. This included the argument that the 1990 statute establishing TPS referred solely to the attorney general as the official authorized to extend and terminate TPS protections, not the DHS.

However, Judge Saris dismissed these claims in her ruling, allowing the Trump administration to proceed with ending TPS for South Sudanese nationals.

Sources