A federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration Tuesday from ending temporary deportation protections for migrants from South Sudan, a move to halt any deportations that came a week before the migrants’ status was set to expire.

The decision, by Judge Angel Kelley, temporarily preserved deportation protections for about 230 South Sudanese nationals approved to live and work in the United States through Temporary Protected Status, a program that shields people from deportation to countries in crisis.

In a four-page opinion, Kelley, a Biden appointee, blocked any deportations pending further court order, as litigation over the issue continues. She also cited “serious, long-term consequences, including the risk of deadly harm” facing the migrants should they be expelled. Absent the court’s intervention, the protection for the South Sudanese migrants had been set to expire Jan. 6.

The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Obama Administration Extended Protections

In 2011, the Obama administration extended the protection to South Sudanese nationals living in the United States, declaring the designation necessary because of armed conflict in the East African country. The program was extended repeatedly in the years since.

A peace agreement in 2018 brought a tenuous end to a yearslong civil war in South Sudan that had been fueled by ethnic conflict, but the country continued to be gripped by violence, unrest and kidnappings. The U.S. State Department lists South Sudan at its highest risk level for travel and urges Americans not to visit.

In November, the Trump administration moved to withdraw the protections for migrants from the country. In a public notice, the Homeland Security Department attributed the decision to improvements in “South Sudan’s civil safety outlook” and in the country’s diplomatic relationship with the United States.

Still, the decision came as the United Nations warned of intensifying armed clashes in South Sudan and deepening food insecurity in the country, which is home to about 11 million people.

Four South Sudanese migrants holding protected status, joined by a New York-based immigration rights’ group, African Communities Together, sued the Trump administration a week ago in a bid to preserve the program.

The lawsuit argues that armed conflict remains a grave threat in South Sudan and that the country is on the brink of falling back into civil war.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tim Balk/Ivor Prickett
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