When you imagine being safe, you imagine comfort and predictability. You imagine your bed, your backyard, a warm shower. You do not imagine kidnapping, armed conflict, or countries so unstable that U.S. troops are ordered to stay behind fortified walls.

But this is what the Trump administration has labeled “safe,” a place it can now send not only the 232 South Sudanese people who just lost protected status, but anyone who dares to seek asylum in the United States.

According to the U.S. State Department, Americans should not travel to South Sudan for any reason because it’s full of, “carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings” and, “foreign nationals have been the victims of rape, sexual assault, armed robberies, and other violent crimes.” And if you do go, they urge to make sure you have your will written.

South Sudan was not a willing partner in this deal. The administration secured this deal by exploiting South Sudan’s desperation — threatened to cut off the remaining aid to the area — following massive DOGE-led budget cuts, which eliminated over 75% of U.S. aid to the region earlier in the year leading to 1,600 preventable deaths in the region from causes like cholera—a disease contracted through contaminated food and water

South Sudan has been war torn for decades, and is on the precipice of yet another civil war after the last one ended just six years ago.

The ‘deal’ for South Sudan to take in asylum seekers and deportees was forced through behind closed doors in May 2025, never disclosed to the American public, never even posted to the Federal Register, and was only exposed after whistleblowers revealed the U.S. had planned secret deportation flights to South Sudan and Uganda.

The U.S. sent 8 men there in July after SCOTUS allowed them to, and according to Tom ‘Border Czar’ Homan, “They're free as far as we're concerned. They're free, they're no longer in our custody, they're in Sudan.”

Under U.S. law, asylum seekers cannot be expelled to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened, and they are entitled to notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest removal.

South Sudan is only one of fourteen countries who have signed an ‘Asylum Cooperative Agreements’ (ACA) agreement with the United States. Under these ACAs, the U.S. can expel asylum seekers to countries they have never stepped foot in by claiming they’re a safe ‘third’ option. These places are mostly scattered in Africa and Latin America.

These “third country” deportation agreements are designed to meet DHS’s stated goal of 1 million deportations a year. At least 58 countries have been approached.

America once labeled this South Sudan too dangerous to send people back to, then chose it as a destination for people escaping violence, persecution, and death. I just want you to let that sink in for a second. This was never about border security or immigration.

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