Two US judges have cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary deportation protections for people from South Sudan and Myanmar.
The rulings came on Friday, August 7. They allow the US Department of Homeland Security to end Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, for people from the two countries.
TPS gives some foreign nationals a legal stay in the United States. It can also give them permission to work. The program is used when conditions in a person’s home country make a safe return hard.
South Sudan and Myanmar have faced serious unrest for years. South Sudan has suffered armed conflict and political violence. Myanmar has faced deep unrest since its military took power in a 2021 coup.
The latest court rulings came after a major US Supreme Court decision in June. That ruling allowed the Trump administration to end similar protections for people from Haiti and Syria.
The Supreme Court ruling also made it harder for lower courts to block efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to end TPS.
The program can cover people from countries hit by war, natural disasters or other major events. It does not give permanent legal status. Instead, it offers temporary protection from deportation and work rights.
The Trump administration moved in November to end TPS for South Sudan and Myanmar.
The move affects about 232 people from South Sudan. It also affects about 4,000 people from Myanmar.
Earlier in the legal fight, federal judges had stopped the administration from ending the protections.
US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston had blocked the end of TPS for South Sudan. US District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago had also blocked the move for Myanmar.
Immigrant rights groups then returned to court after the Supreme Court ruling.
They used a new legal argument. They said the Department of Homeland Security did not have the legal power to end TPS for the two countries.
Judge Saris rejected that argument on Friday morning. She said accepting it could raise a wider issue.
In her view, the argument could also question the department’s long held power to extend TPS protections.
Hours later, Judge Kennelly reached a similar decision in the Myanmar case.
Both rulings now give the Trump administration more room to carry out its plan.
The cases are part of a much wider fight over immigration policy under Trump.
The administration has sought to reduce the use of temporary protections for migrants from several countries. Immigrant groups have challenged many of those moves in federal courts.
The Supreme Court’s June ruling changed the legal path for many of those cases. The court has a 6 to 3 conservative majority.
The decision limited how lower court judges could review efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to end TPS.
The latest rulings may also affect other TPS cases still before the courts.
James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, said the two rulings leave only TPS efforts involving Ethiopia and Somalia blocked by courts.
He also called on other judges to support the government’s position in similar cases.
For people from South Sudan and Myanmar, the decisions could now lead to the loss of work rights and protection from deportation.
The changes do not mean every person covered by TPS will be removed from the United States at once. The end of the status must still take effect under the government’s process.
The cases also show how the Supreme Court’s June decision is shaping immigration cases across the country.
For the Trump administration, the rulings are a major step toward ending TPS for thousands of migrants.
For immigrant rights groups, the decisions are another setback in their effort to keep protections in place.
The legal fight over TPS is likely to continue as courts consider similar challenges involving other countries.
