Federal judge approves Trump administration plan to end Temporary Protected Status for South Sudanese in U.S.

A federal judge has approved an effort by the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status protections for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States, setting up the termination of their protected immigration status after the court rejected a legal challenge, according to a report published Friday.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Patti Saris of the District of Massachusetts, who denied the plaintiffs’ request to block the administration’s move to strip TPS protections for South Sudan. The decision follows the administration’s broader attempt to end TPS for multiple countries that had been granted protected status under U.S. immigration law, with the government arguing the protections may be terminated in line with federal authority after intervening Supreme Court guidance.

The Guardian reported that Saris’s decision relied in part on the same controlling legal backdrop that enabled the government to remove TPS protections from other groups. The article said Saris ruled after a Supreme Court decision that allowed the administration to move forward with stripping TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians, a development that narrowed courts’ ability to stop the executive branch from ending these designations.

In the Massachusetts case, the court’s rejection means the administration’s TPS termination plan can proceed, and the affected South Sudanese nationals would lose the benefit of TPS once the government’s process and timelines are carried out. The report described the impacted group as “hundreds” of South Sudanese people in the United States, making the case part of a larger public order and border management effort tied to U.S. decisions about temporary immigration protections.

The TPS framework, established in federal immigration law, allows the U.S. government to designate foreign nationals as eligible for temporary protection when conditions in their home country are deemed unsafe to allow safe return. When TPS is terminated, recipients generally lose work authorization and fall back into the normal immigration system, which can include options such as other immigration pathways or removal proceedings depending on individual circumstances.

While Saris’s ruling clears the administration to proceed in this case, additional litigation typically follows when TPS terminations are challenged. The next steps would depend on how quickly the government implements the end of South Sudan TPS and whether any further appeals or requests for relief are filed in federal court.

The case is likely to remain closely watched by legal advocates and immigration agencies alike because TPS terminations affect family stability, employment, and state and local service burdens, and because the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling has been used by the administration to justify a faster turn toward ending protected status designations.