With protected status set to expire, many South Sudanese face returning to a country in crisis

Alex Lomong is a man of many labels: He’s a Virginia resident, was a decorated Division I athlete on the Ohio State University track team, and is a middle-distance runner whose times put him in sight of qualifying for the Olympic trials. Alex Lomong, right, was a Division I athlete at Ohio State University.Courtesy Alex Lomong Lomong hopes to compete in the Olympics someday.Courtesy Alex Lomong He is also an immigrant from South Sudan who was granted Temporary Protected Status. Now, with the Trump administration’s plan to end TPS designation for South Sudanese nationals on Jan. 5, Lomong is one of many facing an uncertain future in the United States. “Ever since I’ve been here, this is the only home I knew,” Lomong, 28, told NBC News. Born in a small village in what is now South Sudan, Lomong fled with his mother to Kenya in 2003 as violence at home escalated. He came to the United States in 2009 at age 11 on a student visa and quickly emerged as a standout runner. The end of TPS could mean that he, as well as hundreds of others, will be forced to return to a country with widespread famine and political instability. “Being deported there is basically like a suicide mission,” Lomong said. TPS provides temporary legal status to people whose home countries are deemed critically unsafe. South Sudan received the designation in 2011 after it seceded from Sudan to become an independent nation . TPS for South Sudanese people has been extended multiple times over the years, and many have depended on it to remain in the United States. “You have people who have been relying on that status for at least 14 years, who have paid their taxes, worked, built lives here, and contributed to the U.S. economy,” said Mariam Masumi, an immigration lawyer who works with TPS holders in Virginia. South Sudan remains deeply unstable, with ongoing violence and mass displacement . The United Nations has warned of widespread hunger, saying millions face food insecurity amid conflict and economic collapse . The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that South Sudan is now among a group of five countries newly subject to full U.S. entry restrictions and travel limitations. Many South Sudanese TPS holders have settled in Maine, where officials have spent years trying to draw younger workers to its aging labor force . For decades, numerous South Sudanese arrivals were granted refugee status before 2011, and then Temporary Protected Status. They fled violence in their home country to brave Maine’s blistering cold and rebuild their lives. South Sudanese people have since opened grocery stores and churches, and became nonprofit leaders. John Ochira is the previous president of the South Sudanese Community Association of Maine and founded the Community Champions League, a soccer program for low-income players in the greater Portland area. A naturalized citizen, he came to the United States in 2005 when he was 17 years old. “I feel super lucky to have come when I...

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