Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals in the US is set to end after federal judges ruled on Friday, 7 August 2026, that the Trump administration can move forward with terminating their protections. The decision also affects nationals of Myanmar.
Judges in Boston, Massachusetts, and Chicago, Illinois, on Friday rejected last-ditch efforts by immigrant-rights advocates to maintain TPS designations for the two countries. The rulings came after the US Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria.
A TPS designation allows eligible nationals of certain countries facing crises, including armed conflict and natural disasters, to remain temporarily in the US. It also protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally.
The terminations would end protections for about 232 South Sudanese nationals and roughly 4,000 people from Myanmar, according to Reuters.
The Supreme Court’s decision limited lower courts’ ability to block the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to terminate TPS for people from roughly a dozen countries, holding that the executive branch has broad authority over the programme.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, immigrant-rights lawyers brought a new challenge, arguing that DHS lacked the authority to terminate TPS.
But US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected the argument, saying it would not only call into question DHS’s authority to terminate TPS but also its longstanding authority to extend the protections.
Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago reached a similar conclusion hours later in the Myanmar case.
DHS moved in November 2025 to terminate TPS for South Sudan, which has held the designation since 2011 amid ongoing conflict, and for Myanmar, which has been in political turmoil since the 2021 military coup.
