The News & Observer by Danielle Battaglia and Steve Wiseman

A Duke University basketball player thought his biggest challenge over the weekend would be winning his Final Four game.

Instead, politics intervened and Khaman Maluach suddenly faced the threat of deportation.

Now Reps. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Raleigh, and Valerie Foushee, a Democrat from Hillsborough, are urging the Trump administration to reconsider its decision to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and restrict future visas to prevent South Sudanese people from entering the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his decision Saturday afternoon on social media and blamed South Sudan’s transitional government for not taking back citizens deported by the Trump administration in a timely manner.

“This blanket approach targeting all passport holders from one country based solely on their nationality will hurt soldiers, athletes, workers and families in North Carolina and put them at grave risk at a time when their home country potentially faces a renewed civil war,” Ross and Foushee wrote in a letter to Rubio that they made public Tuesday morning.

North Carolina has a large Sudanese population, especially in the Greensboro area. None of the Republicans who represent the Triad responded to a request for comment from McClatchy, including Reps. Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk, Addison McDowell of Davie County and Pat Harrigan of Hickory.

Foushee represents Durham, home to Duke.

Khaman Maluach: From South Sudan to Final Four

Maluach, born in Rumbek, South Sudan, grew up a refugee in Uganda and played basketball at the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal. He played for South Sudan’s Olympic team in Paris last summer before coming to Duke in August for his freshman season with the Blue Devils.

A few hours after Rubio’s immigration announcement on Saturday, Maluach started his 39th game for Duke as the Blue Devils played Houston in the Final Four at San Antonio’s Alamodome. Maluach scored six points, with no rebounds, as Houston beat Duke, 70-67, to end the Blue Devils’ season.

During the game, word of the new immigration situation that could impact Maluach spread among the Duke officials attending the game, including school president Vince Price and athletic director Nina King. Maluach, whose sister has been in the United States attending his NCAA Tournament games since last month, was not made available for comment for post-game lockerroom interviews which the NCAA considers mandatory.

King initially said the school was “looking into” the immigration situation before later deferring all comments to university spokesman Frank Tramble.

In an emailed statement, Tramble said, “Duke University is aware of the announcement from the Department of State regarding visa holders from South Sudan. We are looking into the situation and working expeditiously to understand any implications for Duke students.”

With Duke’s basketball season over, Maluach is expected to turn his attention toward this summer’s NBA Draft, where he’s projected to be a first-round pick. In addition to Duke officials, NBA officials are also monitoring the situation.

Displacement and violence in South Sudan

South Sudan was formed in 2011, after several civil wars broke out in Sudan. It is located in east Africa and bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and the Central African Republic.

The country is considered one of the least developed in the world and has faced a seven-year civil war beginning in 2013 that left millions of residents displaced and others killed in ethnic massacres. The country continues to experience ethnic-based violence.

Ross and Foushee reminded Rubio of the “dire situation” in their letter.

“United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that the country is facing ‘a security emergency,’ as tensions continue to escalate between government forces and armed militias,” Ross and Foushee wrote. “According to the UN, tens of thousands of people have been displaced since late February due to violence.”

U.S. residents from South Sudan

South Sudanese residents fled not only to their neighboring countries, but to the United States. The U.S. began taking in people from the region that now includes Sudan and South Sudan decades ago.

And the Greensboro population includes many members of the group known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Ross and Foushee noted that the Lost Boys were “driven away from their homes and orphaned during a civil war in the 1980s. Many of them walked over a thousand miles to escape death or forced military service.”

“After enduring unimaginable hardship, thousands of these boys were granted refuge in the United States,” Foushee and Ross wrote.

About 3,000 people from Sudan and South Sudan live in North Carolina, according to the U.S. Census’s 2023 American Community Survey, which does not distinguish between the two countries.

Ross and Foushee wrote that South Sudanese visa holders in the United States are not “foreign enemies nor are they responsible for any disagreement you and President Trump may have with the transitional government of South Sudan.”

They told Rubio that “many lives no hang in the balance” and urged him to reconsider his “blanket policy.”

One area of debate regarding the status of South Sudanese passport holders in the U.S. is a September 2023 move by the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security that extended Temporary Protected Status for them through this May 3.

According to the DHS website, Temporary Protected Status means such individuals are not removable from the United States, can obtain an employment authorization document and may be granted travel authorization.

“Through the extension and redesignation of South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status, the United States will continue to offer safety and protection to South Sudanese nationals who may not be able to return to their country due to the ongoing armed conflict and humanitarian crisis,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary at the time, said in a statement. “We will continue to offer our support to South Sudanese nationals through this temporary form of humanitarian relief.”

Attempts by McClatchy News to get clarification from government officials as to whether Rubio’s new order overrides this rule were unsuccessful.

Since replacing Mayorkas as the DHS head, Kristi Noem twice attempted to revoke TPS for Venezuelans who are legally in the U.S. on visas. A federal judge in California thwarted those efforts on March 31.

Link to full article: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article303699046.html