By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Immigrant rights advocates have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision last month to end the temporary protections from deportation granted to more than 200 South Sudanese nationals.
Four migrants from South Sudan, along with the non-profit African Communities Together, alleged in a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court on Monday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was unlawfully putting them at risk of losing their temporary protected status after January 5.
That status, known as TPS, is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.
The lawsuit argues the agency's action violated the statute governing the TPS program, ignored the dire humanitarian conditions that remain in South Sudan, and was motivated by discrimination against migrants who are not white in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
"This pattern reveals the administration’s true agenda: stripping protections from immigrant communities of color regardless of the dangers they face," Amaha Kassa, the executive director of African Communities Together, said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
South Sudan has faced repeated bouts of violent conflict since 2011, with a civil war between 2013 and 2018 killing 400,000 people. The United States began designating South Sudan for TPS in 2011.
About 232 South Sudanese nationals have been beneficiaries of TPS and have found refuge in the United States, and another 73 have pending applications for that same protection, according to the lawsuit.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, on November 5, published a notice terminating TPS for South Sudan, saying the country no longer met the conditions for the designation.
She did so after her department moved to similarly end temporary protections extended to foreign nationals from countries including Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, prompting several court challenges.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in BostonEditing by Rod Nickel)
