FILE PHOTO: U.S. flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
BOSTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked plans by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to end temporary protections from deportation that had been granted to hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request by several South Sudanese nationals and an immigrant rights group to prevent the temporary protected status they had been granted from expiring as planned after January 5.
Kelley issued the order after four migrants from South Sudan along with African Communities Together, a non-profit group, sued. The lawsuit alleged that action by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was unlawful and exposed them to being deported to a country facing a series of humanitarian crises.
Kelley, who was appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden, issued an administrative stay that temporarily voided the policy pending further litigation. She said allowing it to take effect before the courts had time to consider the case's merits "would result in an immediate impact on the South Sudanese nationals, stripping current beneficiaries of lawful status, which could imminently result in their deportation."
The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson has previously said its actions were warranted given "renewed peace in South Sudan, their demonstrated commitment to ensuring the safe reintegration of returning nationals, and improved diplomatic relations."
South Sudan has been ravaged by conflict since winning independence from Sudan in 2011. Fighting has persisted in much of the country since the end in 2018 of a five-year civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people, and the U.S. State Department advises citizens not to travel there.
The United States began designating South Sudan for temporary protected status, or TPS, in 2011.
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.
About 232 South Sudanese nationals have been beneficiaries of TPS and have found refuge in the United States, and another 73 have pending applications for that same protection, according to the lawsuit.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem published a notice on November 5 terminating TPS for South Sudan, saying the country no longer met the conditions for the designation.
Her department has moved to similarly end temporary protections to foreign nationals from countries including Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, prompting several court challenges.
The lawsuit argues the agency's action violated the statute governing the TPS program, ignored the dire humanitarian conditions that remain in South Sudan, and was motivated by discrimination against migrants who are not white in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Rosalba O'Brien and Chizu Nomiyama )
