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

Federal judges in Boston and Chicago have rejected attempts by immigrant-rights advocates to preserve Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of South Sudan and Myanmar, paving the way for the Trump administration to end these deportation protections. These rulings follow a Supreme Court decision in June that allowed the administration to terminate similar protections for Haitians and Syrians, asserting broad executive authority over the TPS program. The terminations would impact roughly 232 individuals from South Sudan, which has held TPS since 2011 due to ongoing conflict, and about 4,000 people from Myanmar, a country experiencing political turmoil since a 2021 military coup. Immigrant-rights lawyers had argued that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacked the authority to terminate TPS, but US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston and Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago both dismissed this argument. They stated that questioning DHS's authority to end TPS would also challenge its long-standing authority to extend such protections. Advocates warn that these rulings leave TPS recipients, who have been living and working in the US under an "administrative stay" during the legal battles, vulnerable to deportation to countries still facing conflict and instability. A DHS official noted that only TPS terminations for Ethiopian and Somalian nationals remain blocked by courts, expressing frustration over the continued "administrative stays."

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Every day these ‘administrative stays’ are in effect is a day the American people are denied what they voted for.