US courts clear way for deportations of South Sudan, Myanmar nationals

Photo: The Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Northwest Washington. Al Jazeera Two federal judges have cleared the way for the Trump administration’s effort to end temporary protections for arrivals from South Sudan and Myanmar. The judges in Boston and Chicago rejected last-ditch efforts by immigrant advocates to continue the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the two countries, after the US Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to revoke similar protections for tens of thousands from Haiti and Syria. TPS provides protection from deportation and work permits for people whose home countries are experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. The termination would end protections for about 232 South Sudanese and about 4,000 people from Myanmar. The Supreme Court’s decision, which cited broad discretion for the administration in deciding TPS, also limits the ability of lower courts to block the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to end TPS for people from about a dozen countries. After the Supreme Court’s order, immigrant advocates filed new challenges arguing that DHS lacked the authority to terminate TPS. But US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected that challenge, saying it would call into question not only DHS’s authority to terminate TPS but also its long-standing practice of extending protections. Hours later, US District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago made a similar ruling in the Myanmar case. Advocates warned that TPS recipients with “administrative stays” allowing them to remain and work in the US while legal challenges continue, face the risk of deportation to their home countries where conflicts and instability persist. The DHS began the process of terminating TPS for South Sudan, designated since 2011 due to ongoing conflict, and Myanmar, which has been politically unstable since a military coup in 2021, in November 2025. DHS General Counsel James Comey said the new rulings leave only the termination of TPS for Ethiopians and Somalis still blocked by courts. “Every time these ‘administrative stays’ are in effect, the results chosen by the American people are being rejected,” he wrote on X. Translated by Thomas from Al Jazeera’s US courts clear way for deportations of South Sudan, Myanmar nationals.