Lawyers accuse Trump administration of deporting Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan in violation of court order
Attorneys for Vietnamese and Burmese migrants alleged in a new emergency motion Tuesday that the Trump administration deported their clients to South Sudan in violation of a previous court order.
The motion is part of an ongoing case about the removal of migrants to third countries as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportation plans.
At least a dozen migrants were abruptly removed to South Sudan this week, according to attorneys who argued in Tuesday's filing that some of them didn't receive proper notice or the opportunity to contest their deportation to a third country.
One of those attorneys, Jacqueline Brown, described the events leading up to her client, a Burmese national who speaks limited English, being removed. On Monday, her client, referred to as N.M., was notified he'd be removed to South Sudan without an interpreter, raising alarm among attorneys. Brown scheduled a video meeting with her client for Tuesday morning, but when she checked online, he was no longer in the detention system.
'At 8:27 AM PT, a Port Isabel Detention Center Detention Officer responded that N.M. had been removed 'this morning.' I emailed to ask to which country N.M. was removed, and the officer responded, at 8:36 AM PT, 'South Sudan,'' according to her court declaration.
The lawyers said that a Vietnamese national 'appears to have suffered the same fate' and that there were likely at least 10 additional class members on the same flight.
Earlier this year, US District Judge Brian Murphy blocked the Trump administration from deporting migrants to countries other than their own without prior written notice and a chance to contest the removal. Attorneys argue that order was violated with the removal of migrants to South Sudan and are asking the court to order their return, as well as block further deportations to third countries unless they comply with Murphy's preliminary injunction.
The Department of Homeland Security hasn't publicly confirmed deportations to South Sudan, which is on the cusp of another civil war. The US has issued a do not travel advisory to the country given ongoing armed conflict.
CNN reached out to DHS for comment.
Earlier this month, Murphy said that deporting migrants to Libya or Saudi Arabia, as reported in the media, would violate his previous order if they were not provided written notice and an opportunity to contest ahead of time. At least one of the migrants mentioned in Tuesday's filing had also been slated to be removed to Libya, according to the attorneys.
Immigrant advocacy groups also filed an emergency motion then to block the removal of migrants to Libya after a Trump administration official told CNN that the administration was moving forward with plans to transport a group of undocumented immigrants to the country on a US military plane. That flight didn't occur.
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It was not a decision to breach the Lower Four Snake River Dams, nor did it support legislation to authorize dam breaching. The dams are owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and removing or redesigning them would require an act of Congress. Breaching the dams remains a deeply controversial subject, as they provide several benefits to our modern, energy-hungry society, including hydropower, barge transportation, and irrigation. The four dams together produce roughly enough electricity to power a city the size of Seattle. (Importantly, they do not provide flood control, as other dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers do.) A core component of the RCBA was to find ways to replace this energy and the other benefits before any breaching plans were even considered. 'The idea was to look at the dams and the benefits they provide,' Wood says. 'And let's ask each other: How can we make sure that the irrigators, the barge operators, the farmers, and the people who depend on the power [the dams generate] can all be made whole?' In many ways, the agreement reached in 2023 provided a road map for these difficult conversations. It established a Tribal Energy Program to help the Columbia River Treaty Tribes develop their own renewable energy sources. It provided federal guidance for replacing and/or redesigning the current irrigation and transportation systems in the Lower Snake region. And it provided the funds to make these solutions workable. Perhaps most importantly, though, it paused the Gordian knot of ongoing lawsuits around the Lower Four dams in an effort to bring stakeholders back to the negotiating table. 'So, I guess we're gonna go back to the way things used to be, which is basically, 'We'll see you in court.' And I don't see how that benefits the fish. And I definitely don't see how it benefits the social and economic interests that depend on this hydropower system.'
