Press Contact: Golnaz Fakhimi, [email protected]

Oral arguments addressed emergency motion to stay the termination of TPS for South Sudan while lawsuit challenging unlawful termination proceeds

(Boston, M.A.) – On Thursday, January 15, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts  heard oral arguments on the plaintiffs’ motion to postpone the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for South Sudan. After the hearing, the Court directed the federal government to produce the administrative record used to justify the termination and extended its December 30, 2025, administrative stay order. The stay extension preserves critical TPS  protections for hundreds of South Sudanese people and their families who have relied on the program for their livelihood. 

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are African Communities Together (ACT) and four South Sudanese community members who have lived and worked in the U.S. for many years and who face grave harm if TPS for South Sudan terminates imminently and unlawfully. The Plaintiffs are represented by Muslim Advocates, Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Covington & Burling LLP, in a lawsuit coordinated by Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP).

“South Sudanese families have been living with uncertainty and fear for months, not knowing whether they will be torn from their homes and communities and sent back to a country still devastated by violence and famine,” said Amaha Kassa, Executive Director of African Communities Together (ACT). “They are essential workers, parents, and neighbors who have built lives here and contributed to their communities for years. Through the administrative stay and after, we will push the Court to recognize that the government conducted a procedurally deficient periodic review of South Sudan’s TPS, and to protect our community members from the grave dangers they would face if forced to return.”

“Thursday’s hearing gave us an opportunity to show the Court the impact of the Trump administration’s racist attacks on the South Sudanese community,” said Carolyn Tran, Executive Director of Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP). “This administration has deliberately targeted Black, Asian, and Arab immigrant communities—from South Sudan to Ethiopia, Haiti to Nepal, Syria to Cameroon. But our solidarity is our strength. CUSP’s member organizations are united across our communities in this fight, and the court’s extension of the December stay order continues to give us hope. And we’re encouraged that the government now has to provide the Court records showing what it did and didn’t do in reviewing South Sudan’s TPS designation.”

“Given the State violence we are seeing inflicted on families and communities across the country, every additional day of protection matters, ” said Erik Crew, Staff Attorney at Haitian Bridge Alliance. “The Judge guaranteed yesterday that the humanitarian protections for TPS beneficiaries from South Sudan will continue for now and until further Court order. This administration’s TPS terminations have been unlawful, and they are part of a larger campaign of deliberate, discriminatory, racist attacks emanating from this Administration.  Where there is the rule of law, people deserve the protections that the laws guarantee. TPS holders from South Sudan deserve the protections guaranteed by law.”

“Driven by a political and racist agenda, the administration has thrown out the window the legally required procedures for reviews of TPS designations and claims courts have no power to do anything about it,” said Abbey Koenning-Rutherford, Staff Attorney at Muslim Advocates. “We will continue to fight for our clients, our communities, our pluralistic society, and the rule of law, at every step of this case.”

The court has given the federal government until January 26 to produce the administrative record. The temporary administrative stay against the termination of TPS for South Sudan remains ongoing pending further Court order. 

For additional information about this lawsuit, please see the prior Press Release issued by Plaintiffs’ attorneys and supporters.