The United States Secretary of State, Senator Marco Rubio, announced on Saturday that the US is revoking all visas for South Sudanese passport holders and blocking new arrivals.
The move comes in response to South Sudan’s refusal to accept nationals who have been deported from the United States.
“The State Department is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry,” Rubio said in a statement.
This marks the first measure targeting all passport holders from a specific country since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, after campaigning on an anti-immigration platform.
Rubio accused the transitional government in Juba of “taking advantage of the United States,” stating that “every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country seeks to remove them.”
Washington “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” Rubio added.
South Sudan, one of the poorest countries, is currently grappling with tensions between political leaders. Some observers fear a resurgence of the civil war that claimed 400,000 lives between 2013 and 2018.
South Sudanese nationals had been granted “temporary protected status” (TPS) by the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, with the designation set to expire on May 3, 2025.
The United States grants TPS, which shields people against deportation, to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.
The Trump White House has started reversing TPS designations, including revoking protection in January for over 600,000 Venezuelans.
