WASHINGTON — Two federal judges on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of South Sudan and Myanmar, removing court orders that had prevented the government from terminating the protections.
The rulings in Boston and Chicago followed a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that limited lower courts' ability to block the Department of Homeland Security's decisions to terminate TPS.
TPS provides eligible nationals of countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions with temporary protection from deportation and authorization to work in the United States. The administration moved in November to terminate TPS for South Sudan, which was designated in 2011, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, which has faced political turmoil since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.
The terminations would affect about 232 South Sudanese nationals and about 4,000 people from Myanmar, according to court-related filings cited by Reuters. Earlier rulings by U.S. District Judges Patti Saris in Massachusetts and Matthew Kennelly in Illinois had blocked the terminations while legal challenges proceeded.
Following the Supreme Court's June ruling, immigrant-rights advocates pursued new legal arguments, contending that DHS lacked authority to terminate TPS designations. Saris rejected that argument on Friday, saying it would also cast doubt on DHS's longstanding authority to extend TPS protections. Kennelly reached a similar conclusion hours later in the Myanmar case.
The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in June involved TPS protections for nationals of Haiti and Syria. The court held that lower courts could not postpone the terminations based on non-constitutional challenges, significantly restricting judicial review of DHS decisions under the TPS statute.
DHS General Counsel James Percival welcomed the two rulings, saying they left only the administration's efforts to terminate TPS for Ethiopia and Somalia blocked by courts. He urged judges handling those cases to rule in favor of the government.
The rulings remove the latest judicial barriers to ending TPS for South Sudanese and Myanmar nationals, although the broader litigation over the administration's immigration policies continues.
