US still freezing South Sudanese visas after deportation row

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Even after South Sudan admitted a US deportee Juba said was a Congolese citizen, the US has yet to undo its freeze on visas for South Sudanese nationals.

“We have no announcements at this time regarding the resumption of visa issuances to South Sudanese passport holders,” a State Department spokesperson told Semafor. If South Sudanese citizens who had their visas revoked wish to travel to the US, “they will need to apply for a visa again,” the official said.

Washington announced last week it was imposing a blanket visa ban on South Sudan and would start revoking existing visas unless the country took in Makula Kintu, who initially presented a South Sudanese travel document with a different name to authorities.

Earlier this week, a US official said they were “prepared to review” the situation when “South Sudan is in full cooperation.”

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The blanket visa freeze at a moment where South Sudan is on the brink of a civil war and has little capacity to accept returning citizens shocked some experts. They noted that South Sudanese citizens ultimately have little influence on their government’s decisions about repatriation given the country has never had an election.

But the move underscores the lengths the Trump administration is willing to go to pressure foreign governments to accept deportees. In January, the US pressured Colombia to accept US military flights with deportees, and the US government is sending some migrants to maximum-security gang prisons in El Salvador.

Washington is also pursuing agreements with further countries to take in deportees from the US, and has asked countries including Libya, Rwanda, Benin, and Eswatini to accept the migrants, The Wall Street Journal reported, drawing inspiration from the UK’s controversial deal to house asylum seekers in Rwanda.

Source: https://www.semafor.com/article/04/11/2025/us-still-freezing-south-sudanese-visas