The Trump administration is revoking all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders over the African nation’s failure to accept repatriated citizens.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement Saturday, calling the action part of the administration’s efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement.
“Effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders,” Rubio said in a press statement.
“Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them,” the statement read.
Rubio added that the new stringent policy will only be reviewed when South Sudan is in cooperation with the Trump administration’s policy.
In a post on X, Rubio further added, “Our efforts to engage diplomatically with the South Sudanese Government have been rebuffed.”
“Effective immediately, all visa appointments are cancelled, no new visas will be issued, no existing visas will be effective, and hence NO ONE from South Sudan will be entering the United States on a visa until this matter is resolved,” Rubio concluded in the post.
South Sudan currently operates under a transitional government that is seeking to avoid an all-out civil war in the Central African nation. It was not clear how many South Sudanese citizens in the US this would affect.
Mediators met in capital city Juba earlier this week to avert the possible civil conflagration that was reignited after FIrst Vice President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest.
Machar was detained after weeks of fighting which broke out on Mar. 3, between the military and the White Army militia, which occupies a part of the country known as the Upper Nile.
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