The Trump administration will end temporary deportation protections for migrants from South Sudan, according to a notice posted by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
Around 230 South Sudanese nationals are currently approved to live and work in the United States through the program, known as Temporary Protected Status, according to a department estimate.
The program, which allows foreign nationals to live temporarily in the United States when conditions in their home countries would make returning unsafe, was first authorized for South Sudanese nationals in 2011. The country’s designation expired on Monday.
People with status through the program will have about 60 days to leave the country before the termination is effective, according to the notice.
“Under the previous administration, Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals and national security threats into our nation,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. “T.P.S. was never designed to be permanent.”
The Obama administration first authorized T.P.S. for South Sudanese nationals, saying the designation was warranted because of ongoing armed conflict. Since then, the program has been extended multiple times. After several years of civil war, a peace agreement was signed in 2018.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said that “renewed peace in South Sudan” and “improved diplomatic relations” justified the end of the program.
In recent weeks, though, the United Nations has warned of escalating armed clashes in South Sudan and food insecurity that is “widespread and deepening” in parts of the country.
The termination is the latest effort by the Trump administration to end temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the United States. Administration officials have also ended T.P.S. designations for Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela.
Some of those efforts have prompted concern that migrants could be returning to unstable countries. After the administration ended T.P.S. for Syrians in September, critics said they worried that conditions in Syria were still dangerous, warranting an extension of the program.
Federal officials have also ended other temporary programs that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to live and work in the country lawfully, including a Biden-era program that gave protections to people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Madeleine Ngo covers U.S. economic policy and how it affects people across the country.
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