WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to soon end temporary protected status for South Sudanese nationals that has been in place for more than a decade, CBS News reported on Wednesday, citing DHS officials.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, which said the proposal will be made public later this week before taking effect in January.
Nationals from South Sudan would have a 60-day grace period to leave the United States before facing deportation starting next year, according to CBS.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has sought to strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants from a number of countries since taking office in January as part of his broad immigration overhaul.
Nationals from Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries have also seen their TPS status revoked, though some face court challenges. Trump’s administration has also separately set a limit on refugee admissions to the lowest ceiling on record.
The TPS program is a humanitarian designation under U.S. law for countries stricken by war, natural disaster or other catastrophes, allowing recipients living in the United States protection from deportation and access to work permits.
South Sudan has faced repeated bouts of violent conflict since 2011, with a civil war between 2013 and 2018 leaving 400,000 people dead.
A U.N.-backed hunger monitor said this week that food insecurity and malnutrition in the country remained “extremely high”.
(Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
