Washington revokes all the visas delivered by the United States to South Sudanese-Liberation
The United States announced on Saturday the revocation of all the visas granted to nationals of South Sudan, an unprecedented decision against a foreign country from the Trump administration. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who announced this decision in a statement on Saturday, April 5, in the evening, accused the African country not to take over its citizens referred to by an expulsion measure: « With immediate effect, the United States Department of State revokes all the visas held by passports of passports in South Sudan. »
This is the first measure of this type taken against all the citizens of a country of the world since the Back to power on January 20 of President Donald Trump, who has initiated a radical policy of fight against immigration. « It is time for the South Sudan transitional government to stop taking advantage of the United States, » accused the American diplomacy chief.
The press release specifies that in addition to the dismissal of existing visas, Washington will cease to give new visas to the country’s nationals of 11 million inhabitants. « We are ready to review this policy when South Sudan is fully cooperative », assured Marco Rubio.
During his previous mandate, Trump had signed in 2017 a decree prohibiting entry on American soil to nationals of several countries, mostly Muslims. Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Somalia had paid the price, but South Sudan, a Christian majority, had at the time escaped this measure.
Washington’s decision hit one of the poorest countries on the planet: in 2022 (statistical published in 2024), South Sudan ranked before in the world human development index published by the United Nations, just before Somalia. It also occurs when the country risks go back to civil warwarned last month a senior UN official. South Sudan-country born in July 2011, under the auspices of the United States, of the partition of Sudan-crossed a civil war which left nearly 400,000 dead and 4 million displaced between 2013 and 2018, when a peace agreement was signed.
In this context, South Sudanese has so far benefited from a protected status granted temporarily (TPS) to American soil. This provision, granted by the Biden administration, expires next month. It prevents to expel nationals from countries who cannot go home due to war or natural disaster or other circumstances « Extraordinary ». In 2023, the Democratic administration had indicated that 133 Sudanese in the South benefited from this status, and that 140 others were eligible for this status.
The Trump administration began to return to TPS status, which was withdrawn in January to more than 600,000 Venezuelans. Justice has just blocked this decision on the grounds that the executive justified it by stating that the majority of the Venezuelans present in the United States are criminals. According to the Pew Research Center Institute, 1.2 million people benefited in March 2024 from the TPS status or could claim it.
