Two federal judges on Friday rejected legal challenges seeking to preserve Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for citizens of South Sudan and Myanmar, allowing the Trump administration to proceed with ending their deportation protections.
The decisions from judges in Boston and Chicago followed a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that had significantly limited lower courts’ ability to block the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to terminate TPS for multiple countries. The Supreme Court’s decision affirmed that the executive branch holds broad authority over the program. The terminations would affect approximately 232 South Sudanese nationals and roughly 4,000 people from Myanmar.
The TPS program provides shielding from deportation and work authorization when home countries face armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances. Immigrant-rights advocates had mounted fresh legal challenges after the Supreme Court ruling, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security lacked the authority to terminate the protections. However, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected this argument, noting it would undermine not only the agency’s ability to end TPS but also its longstanding authority to extend the protections. Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago reached a similar conclusion hours later regarding the Myanmar case.
The rulings expose TPS recipients to possible deportation to countries experiencing significant instability. Those affected had been operating under an administrative stay during the legal proceedings, which allowed them to continue working and residing in the United States. South Sudan has held TPS status since 2011 due to ongoing conflict, while Myanmar was designated following a military coup in 2021.
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s General Counsel, only TPS terminations for Ethiopian and Somalian nationals remain blocked by courts. The DHS had initiated efforts to end protections for South Sudan and Myanmar in November 2025.
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