Two federal judges in the United States have permitted President Donald Trump's administration to end temporary deportation protections for nationals of South Sudan and Myanmar. The rulings, delivered on Friday (local time) in Boston, Massachusetts, and Chicago, Illinois, dismissed last-ditch legal efforts by immigration rights groups to preserve Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for these two countries.
The move follows a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing the administration to end similar protections for thousands of Haitians and Syrians. TPS is a program that shields immigrants from deportation and grants them work permits when their home countries are afflicted by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.
According to Reuters, ending TPS will affect approximately 232 South Sudanese nationals and about 4,000 people from Myanmar. The earlier Supreme Court ruling limited the ability of lower courts to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from terminating TPS for citizens from about a dozen countries, reasoning that the executive branch holds broad authority over decisions involving the program.
Following the Supreme Court's decision, immigration rights lawyers launched a fresh challenge, arguing that DHS lacked the authority to end TPS. However, District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected this argument, stating that it not only questioned DHS's authority to terminate TPS but also the agency's long-standing power to extend protections. A few hours later, Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago reached a similar conclusion in the case involving Myanmar.
Activists warned that these rulings put TPS recipients, who have been enjoying “administrative stays” during litigation that allowed them to continue working and living in the U.S., at risk of deportation to countries still mired in conflict and instability.
DHS proposed ending TPS for South Sudan and Myanmar in November 2025. South Sudan has benefited from TPS since 2011 due to prolonged conflict, while Myanmar has been in political turmoil since the 2021 military coup. James Percival, General Counsel of DHS, noted that the new rulings leave only the TPS termination orders for citizens of Ethiopia and Somalia still blocked by courts.
“Every day that these 'administrative stays' remain in effect is a day that the American people are denied what they voted for,” he wrote on social media platform X.
