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

What the report says

Two federal judges in the United States have removed a legal barrier to the Trump administration’s plan to end Temporary Protected Status for nationals of South Sudan and Myanmar, clearing a path for deportations after separate rulings in Boston and Chicago. According to Al Jazeera and Reuters, the decisions came on Friday, following a June US Supreme Court ruling that had already allowed the administration to end similar protections for people from Haiti and Syria.

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, gives eligible migrants protection from deportation and work authorization when conditions in their home countries are disrupted by war, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises. The article says the planned terminations would affect about 232 South Sudanese nationals and roughly 4,000 people from Myanmar. Immigration advocates had asked the courts to preserve the designations, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security lacked authority to end them.

US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected that claim in the South Sudan case, while Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago reached a similar conclusion in the Myanmar case. Al Jazeera reported that advocates warned the rulings could expose TPS holders to deportation despite conflict and instability in both countries. DHS had moved in November 2025 to end TPS for South Sudan, where the designation has existed since 2011, and for Myanmar, which has faced turmoil since a 2021 military coup.

The rulings leave only TPS terminations for Ethiopian and Somali nationals still blocked by courts, according to DHS General Counsel James Percival, as quoted by Reuters and Al Jazeera.