US Wants to revoke All South Sudanese Visas at a time of War

This is what happens when you put incompetent people in charge of Government: South Sudan is on the brink of a renewed civil war as violence between rival factions escalates. South Sudan’s opposition has said that it has arrested First Vice President Riek Machar, longtime rival to President Salva Kiir, invalidating their 2018 peace deal and risked plunging the country back into war.

A convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles entered Machar’s residence in the capital, Juba, late on Wednesday and arrested him, according to a statement issued by a member of his party – a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has been building for weeks in the world’s youngest country. Today Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of state issued the following statement:

Defending America’s Security through Visa and Travel Restrictions on South Sudan

04/05/2025 05:51 PM EDT

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State

It is time for the Transitional Government of South Sudan to stop taking advantage of the United States.  Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety 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.

As South Sudan’s transitional government has failed to fully respect this principle, effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders.  We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation.

This is no time for punitive measures. Given the current dangers in South Sudan, the unrest and heading back to war - this action is cruel, and will cost lives. There is no regard for revoking visas of innocent people from a country literally boiling over into a dangerous war.

Rubio saying the US would revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders over South Sudan’s failure to accept the return of its repatriated citizens, at a time when many in Africa fear that country could return to civil war is one of the most egregious human rights infractions imaginable. A comparison would be 1939, sending all German visa holders, including those who may be Jews, back to Germany because of a political beef that can easily await timing and pend diplomacy. But this is not a competent American regime and this is fascism at play.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken aggressive measures to ramp up immigration enforcement, including the repatriation of people deemed to be in the U.S. illegally. South Sudan's refusal should not be judged at a time of war and internal instability. Not only is a Marco Rubio State Department grossly incapable of navigating Africa and its importance to the world, but also unable to exert diplomacy, and it seems ready to make an unstable situation even worse. Our immigration concerns can easily wait out the South Sudanese situation before risking these lives. However the trump MAGA and Republican regime has no regard for basic global decency, let alone African lives. At AHRC we are receiving direct reporting of issues pertaining to the dangers for refugees during this volatile unstable time. We are concerned that the people who we are providing humanitarians support to are in grave danger, as instability increases. We had warned new arrivals, to stay away, but unfortunately they did not heed our warnings. We urge the U.S. Government to refrain from revoking all Visas and to allow the situation in South Sudan to settle down. Those who are here in the USA are not endangering the US and the innocent visa holders should not suffer at a time of such instability, they should be helped, not sent into a war. How reprehensible.