South Sudan criticizes U.S. for revocation of visas, says it's based on case of mistaken nationality

The South Sudan foreign ministry is criticizing the revocation of U.S. visas for all its nationals, calling it unfair and saying it was based on an incident that didn't involve one of its citizens but another African national.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. decided to revoke all visas for South Sudanese citizens because the country's government failed to accept the return of its citizens being removed from the U.S. in a "timely matter."

"It is time for the Transitional Government of South Sudan to stop taking advantage of the United States," Rubio said in a statement. "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."