By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from ending temporary protections from deportation that had allowed hundreds of South Sudanese nationals to live and work in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston concluded that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had likely acted unlawfully by providing a “pretextual” reason for terminating South Sudan’s Temporary Protected Status designation and not disclosing the real factor motivating her action.
That status is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.
Noem in November published a notice terminating TPS for conflict-ridden South Sudan, saying the country no longer met the conditions for the designation, which was first issued in 2011.
Saris said that notice failed to acknowledge the “real reason” for Noem’s action, which was that she had adopted a “preordained pattern and practice” of terminating TPS designations for all countries.
Saris, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, noted that since Noem took office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has moved to end TPS designations for 11 other countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia.
“It is highly likely that no country will pass muster, no matter how dire its conditions,” Saris said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement called the ruling “another lawless and activist order from the federal judiciary who continues to usurp the president’s constitutional authority.”
The ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of South Sudanese nationals and the non-profit African Communities Together. Another judge earlier in the case had delayed the end of TPS for South Sudan to provide time for Saris to hear the case.
Conflict has ravaged South Sudan since it won independence from Sudan in 2011. Fighting has persisted in much of the country since a five-year-long civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people ended in 2018. The U.S. State Department advises citizens not to travel there.
About 232 South Sudanese nationals have been beneficiaries of TPS and have found refuge in the United States, and another 73 have pending applications, according to the lawsuit.
Similar lawsuits have led to court rulings that have blocked the end of TPS for people from nations including Haiti, Syria and Myanmar.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Deepa Babington)
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