The Trump administration is hammering a federal judge for temporarily blocking its effort to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for South Sudan despite a recent Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed lower courts' authority to intervene.U.S.District Judge Patti Saris on Thursday granted an administrative stay in African Communities Together v.
Mullin , preserving TPS protections for South Sudanese nationals while she considers whether plaintiffs may amend their lawsuit and seek renewed relief on constitutional grounds.The order temporarily freezes the administration's Nov.6, 2025, decision ending South Sudan's TPS designation, keeping it "null, void, and of no legal effect" until jurisdiction returns to the 1st Circuit.
Saris stressed that the order is a procedural measure to preserve the status quo while the court considers the plaintiffs' latest filings and is not a ruling on the merits."Another rogue district judge just postponed the termination of TPS for South Sudan," DHS general counsel James Percival wrote on X, slamming the decision."This is open defiance of the Supreme Court, plain and simple!"SUPREME COURT WEIGHS TRUMP EFFORT TO TERMINATE TEMPORARY PROTECTIONS FOR HAITIAN, SYRIAN MIGRANTSSen.
Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., arrived to testify during a confirmation hearing to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C.President Donald Trump nominated Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as DHS secretary.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, echoed that criticism, arguing Saris lacked authority to issue any relief after the Supreme Court's recent TPS ruling."She has no right to 'maintain the status quo,'" von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital."No jurisdiction means no jurisdiction and under the applicable law, the only proper course of judicial action is to dismiss the lawsuits, explaining that based on ...