Judge Rules Trump Administration May End South Sudan TPS

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris ruled Friday that the Trump administration may terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 232 South Sudanese nationals and at least 73 individuals with pending applications. The decision rejects a challenge from immigrant rights organizations, including African Communities Together, which argued that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacked the statutory authority to end the protections because the original 1990 statute named the attorney general.

Judge Saris concluded that Congress transferred the necessary authority to the DHS upon the agency's creation in 2002. She noted that if the DHS lacked the power to terminate the designation, it would have also lacked the power to issue it. This ruling follows a June Supreme Court of the United States decision that permitted the administration to strip TPS from hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Haitians.

James Percival, General Counsel for the DHS, praised the ruling and called for other judges to lift similar administrative stays to fulfill the will of the voters.