The United States has revoked visas issued to all South Sudanese passport holders with immediate effect, the U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced.
Rubio, in a statement on Saturday, April 5, announced the decision, saying that it was occasioned by South Sudan’s transitional government refusing to accept the return of its citizens who have been repatriated from the U.S.
In addition, the Secretary of State further noted that the U.S will also block any arriving citizens of the East African nation at all ports of entry.
“I am taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent entry into the United States, effective immediately, due to the failure of South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner,” said Rubio.
“It is time for the Transitional Government of South Sudan to stop taking advantage of the United States. Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them.”
South Sudanese nationals in the U.S
Rubio added that the U.S “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation.”
In the United States, South Sudanese nationals were previously granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which had been due to expire by 3 May.
TPS allows them to remain in the US for a set period of time.
The announcement comes after the United States ordered its non-emergency government personnel in South Sudan to leave the country because of security concerns last month amid rising fears that the country may again descend into civil war.
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The State Department on March 9 said violent crime, including carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings, is common throughout the world’s newest nation, including in Juba.
“Armed conflict is ongoing and includes fighting between various political and ethnic groups. Weapons are readily available to the population,” the State Department said.
Also, the announcement by Secretary Rubio comes at a time when the President Donald Trump administration has clashed with international governments over deportations of their nationals from the US since returning to office.
Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants
In the executive orders, the President tasked the military with aiding border security, issued a broad ban on asylum, and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S soil.
Trump, while declaring illegal immigration a national emergency, ordered the Pentagon to provide support for border wall construction, detention space, and migrant transportation and empowered the Secretary of Defense to send troops to the border as needed.
Following the signing of the orders, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
According to data from the U.S Department of Homeland Security, ICE has made 32,809 enforcement arrests in the first 50 days of the Trump Administration. The department said that a total of 14,111—nearly half of the illegal aliens arrested in the past 50 days—were convicted criminals, while 9,980—about a third— have pending criminal charges.
In February, ICE had revealed that it was targeting at least 1,445,549 noncitizens from 187 countries, including 136 South Sudanese nationals for deportation.
Other African countries on the deportation list included Somalia (4,090), Nigeria (3,690), Ethiopia (1,713), Kenya (1,282) Congo (795), Niger (642), Burundi (462), Uganda (393), Tanzania (301), Rwanda (338), Zimbabwe (545), Zambia (174), and Djibouti (29).
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