Federal Judge Upholds Trump Administration's End of TPS for South Sudan

Herz — World Desk · 7 August 2026 at 20:31 · 30s summary · 3 min read

What We Know

On August 7, 2026, federal judge Patti Saris of the Massachusetts District Court upheld the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for South Sudanese nationals in the United States. According to The Guardian, she rejected appeals from immigrant advocacy organizations including African Communities Together, based in New York.

The ruling marks a significant reversal: Judge Saris had previously blocked the measure through an earlier order from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created in 2002 in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. More than 232 South Sudanese nationals and at least 73 pending applications are affected by the TPS termination.

In her 15-page ruling, Saris found the plaintiffs' argument to be 'self-contradictory': if the DHS lacked the authority to end South Sudan's TPS, it would not have had the authority to grant it in the first place.

Immigrant advocacy organizations had argued that the DHS—created in 2002—lacked authority to terminate TPS, as the 1990 statute establishing the program mentions only the attorney general. Saris concluded that Congress had transferred this authority to the DHS when it transferred immigration functions from the Department of Justice.

James Percival, general counsel for the DHS, responded on X by calling on all judges handling other TPS cases to issue similar rulings.

Background

In June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration, authorizing the termination of TPS for over 350,000 Haitians and approximately 6,100 Syrians, overturning lower court blocks issued by courts in New York and Washington DC.

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, has been ravaged by civil war and ethnic violence that has killed more than 400,000 people. The country received its initial TPS designation upon independence in 2011.

The DHS announced in November that it would end TPS for South Sudan, arguing the country no longer meets program requirements. The Trump administration is terminating TPS for nationals of countries to which the U.S. government itself applies its highest-level travel warnings, including South Sudan, Haiti, and Syria.

The Numbers