On April 5, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the U.S. visas of all South Sudanese passport holders after the transitional government of South Sudan failed to accept a deported man “in a timely manner.”
According to reports, the deportee arrived in the capital, Juba, with a travel document that was not his. Upon further verification, authorities discovered he is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The man claims he was brought to South Sudan against his will.
Dane Smith, who leads American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans, said the situation is “not quite that simple.” Smith is former U.S. Ambassador to Guinea and Senegal and was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, in the late 1980s.
“Based on what I’ve been able to put together, the guy assumed several identities, including a Congolese identity,” Smith said. Authorities concluded, however, that he is still South Sudanese. Although TLC could not verify Smith’s claim, a BBC report said that South Sudanese officials in Washington certified the deportee as one of their nationals.
In an effort to defuse the visa ban, South Sudan eventually accepted the deportee, though the State Department’s restriction remains. It is unclear whether the measure affects South Sudanese individuals in the United States who were granted Temporary Protected Status because of the conflict. The status expires next month.
Maketh Mabior, lay leader of the South Sudanese congregation worshiping at St. Paul’s Church by-the-Lake in Chicago, expressed dismay over the government’s decision and the growing insecurity these immigration policy shifts bring to his community.
“If we feel one person is down in the community, we feel the pain,” Mabior said. He said it took years for some families to enter the United States. “Now they just want to settle and keep their feet on the ground,” he said. This uncertainty caused by the visa ban has led some of them to ask, ‘What’s left for us now?’”
Mabior arrived in Chicago as a refugee in 2001. Volunteers from St. Paul’s helped him adjust to life in America and find work. He recalls visiting the parish on Thursday nights to meet with volunteers and fellow refugees. “This is the church who opened the door for us,” Mabior said. “St. Paul’s became the foundation for our life in Chicago.”
South Sudan has a Christian majority, and 30.5 percent of its population belongs to the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, a church of 61 dioceses and 3.5 million members. The congregation at St. Paul’s is one of dozens of South Sudanese immigrant churches across North America, many of them connected to Episcopal and Anglican Church in North America congregations.
The refugees who gathered at St. Paul’s decided to form a worshiping community at the parish. A South Sudanese congregation was born, and today, up to 80 parishioners meet there for worship on Sundays. Services are conducted in their native language, Dinka.
“Most of us work on the weekends,” he said, because many parishioners are employed in the hospitality industry.
Sudan was once Africa’s largest country, encompassing eight percent of the continent’s land area. But decades of conflict between northern and southern regions led to two civil wars, claiming over two million lives and displacing millions more, including Mabior and his sister. In 2011, the country’s 10 southernmost states gained independence following a 2005 peace agreement that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.
“It’s a sad situation because we are a new country,” Mabior said. “People are busy building the country, and the resources are not enough. This has forced people to come to America to get more opportunities and for their kids to be able to go to school and live a better life.”
South Sudanese immigrants who have become American citizens, like Mabior, are now trying to comfort and support recent arrivals. But the uncertainty is hard to navigate. “It’s just a nightmare,” he said.
Mabior said the Very Rev. Trey Garland, rector of St. Paul’s, has asked for updates on the issue and offered to seek help from the Diocese of Chicago.
Despite its independence, South Sudan has not achieved peace or prosperity. Two years after its founding, a civil war erupted, fueled by political rivalry between the president and vice president. Despite multiple peace agreements, violence persists, and the economy remains fragile. In 2023, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 76 percent of South Sudan’s 9.4 million people, including 4.9 million children, required humanitarian aid, with millions facing food insecurity.
Now 13 years old, the nation has yet to hold democratic elections and is experiencing Africa’s largest refugee crisis, with over two million living in neighboring countries and another two million displaced internally.
The country’s instability complicates its current diplomatic rift with the United States.
“The South Sudanese government is not a government that shows a great deal of transparency or good faith,” Smith said. He mentioned the deterioration of stability and said he “fears there’ll be a return to conflict.” In March, the State Department ordered non-emergency government staff to leave South Sudan’s capital.
Smith advised South Sudanese immigrants to maintain proper legal status. “That’s really the only guidance I can give,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about the future of people in the country who are not American citizens.”
Though uncertain when the visa ban might be lifted, the former diplomat hopes the matter will be resolved soon: “I don’t think the State Department is in a rush to do it.”
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
