The Department of Homeland Security has terminated protections for South Sudanese nationals living in the U.S., paving the way for deportations starting next year.
The order to end temporary protected status takes effect Jan. 5, 2026.
“While there is inter/intra-communal violence linked to border disputes, cross-border violence, cyclical and retaliatory attacks, and ethnic polarization, return to full-scale civil war, to-date, has been avoided,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote in a filing published to the Federal Register on Wednesday.
“Although residual challenges from the civil war remain, there is no longer an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning South Sudanese nationals,” it added.
President Donald Trump has sought to strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants from a number of countries since taking office in January as part of his broad immigration crackdown and “America First” agenda.
Temporary protected status, or TPS, is a humanitarian designation under U.S. law for countries stricken by war, natural disaster, or other catastrophes, giving recipients living in the United States protection from deportation and access to work permits.
South Sudan has faced repeated bouts of violent conflict since 2011, with a civil war between 2013 and 2018 leaving 400,000 people dead.
A U.N.-backed hunger monitor said this week that food insecurity and malnutrition in the country remained “extremely high.”
Nationals from Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua have also seen their TPS status revoked, though some cases remain tied up in court.
The administration has also separately set a limit on refugee admissions to the lowest ceiling on record.
The New York Immigration Coalition, which includes more than 200 immigrant and refugee groups, called the move “cruel and heartless.”
“The Trump administration is playing politics with their lives, forcing our neighbors into legal limbo and putting them at risk of deportation even though they followed every legal requirement to remain in the United States,” it said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. continues to work with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to pursue a “negotiated peace process” addressing both the humanitarian crisis and long-term political challenges.
“We’re in pretty frequent communication with those Arab partners that I just mentioned, and we want to see this conflict come to a peaceful end, just as we have with so many others. But the reality is it’s a very complicated situation on the ground right now,” she added.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
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