US judge clears path for eight immigrants to be deported to South Sudan
Lawyers for the justice department said the men were scheduled to be flown to South Sudan on Friday at 7pm Eastern Time after two courts considered the request on an emergency basis on 4 July, when courts were otherwise closed for the Independence Day holiday.
Lawyers for the migrants had filed new claims in Washington late on Thursday after the supreme court clarified that a judge in Massachusetts could no longer require the US Department of Homeland Security to hold them.
District judge Randolph Moss in Washington paused the deportation briefly on Friday afternoon but sent the case back to US district judge Brian Murphy in Boston.
Murphy said the supreme court order required him to deny their bid, saying their claims that deportation was being used as a form of punishment were 'substantially similar' to the ones he had ruled on previously.
The order was the latest round in the fight over the legality of the Trump administration's campaign to deter immigration through high-profile deportations to countries where migrants say they face safety concerns, and which has already gone from lower courts to the supreme court twice.
The eight men awaiting deportation are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan. All have been convicted of serious crimes, which the Trump administration has emphasized in justifying their banishment. Many had either finished or were close to finishing serving sentences, and had 'orders of removal' directing them to leave the US.
A lawyer for the men have said they could 'face perilous conditions' upon arriving in the country. South Sudan is enmeshed in civil war, and the US government advises no one should travel there before making their own funeral arrangements.
The administration has been trying to deport the immigrants for weeks. The government flew them to the US naval base in Djibouti but couldn't move them further because Murphy had ruled no immigrant could be sent to a new country without a chance to have a court hearing.
Jennie Pasquarella, a lawyer with the Seattle Clemency Project who represents the migrants, called the ruling disappointing.
'Both courts' decisions today have denied them their opportunity to have these claims heard and to protect their own lives,' she said. 'That is what is so tragic about where we came out.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Worker is arrested after being accidentally paid $400k by employer
A Florida horse clinic mistakenly paid a receptionist with a veterinarian's checks — and now the $60,000-a-year employee stands accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yessica Arrua, 29, of Wellington, was arrested on June 27 after allegedly pocketing more than $400,000 of someone else's salary. A police report from the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office (PBSO) obtained by the Daily Mail revealed the trouble started in early 2023, when the Palm Beach Equine Clinic's (PBEC) CFO noticed the error and contacted payroll provider Harbor America. The firm had accidentally routed a veterinarian's salary to Arrua's account. Arrua, originally from Argentina, received the inflated pay — nearly seven times her salary — from February 2022 to January 2023, according to the report. Though she allegedly admitted to noticing the overpayment, she never reported it to her employer. Instead, police say Arrua used the extra money at Coach, Michael Kors, restaurants, and furniture stores. Thousands were also sent through Zelle to someone labeled 'Mama Dukes'. The report also details an $80,000 purchase of a food truck for a friend of Arrua's mother, and claims she sent money to Argentina to help build a house. When questioned, Arrua reportedly said she believed the funds were a 'bonus' for her work as a receptionist. She claimed to have heard that a previous receptionist once received one for saving the company money on supplies. Arrua had worked at the clinic for nine years and had known the company president — who eventually reported her — since she was nine years old. The veterinarian whose salary was redirected earned $450,000 a year but reportedly did not monitor her bank deposits. She only discovered the issue when her credit cards started getting declined. After realizing the error, she confronted Arrua, who allegedly broke down and confessed. Arrua then wrote a $200,000 cashier's check to the clinic, but claimed she couldn't return the rest because her mother had already sent $100,000 to relatives in Argentina, believing it was a 'gift from God'. When asked why she hadn't arranged a payment plan, she told police she didn't know how to approach the company president due to his anger.
The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘This bill protects our precious waters': how a Florida environmental group scored a win against big oil
The giant and catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also known as the BP oil spill, didn't reach Apalachicola Bay in 2010, but the threat of oil reaching this beautiful and environmentally valuable stretch of northern Florida's Gulf coast was still enough to devastate the region's economy. The Florida state congressman Jason Shoaf remembers how the threat affected the bay. 'It harmed our commercial fishing, aquaculture operations, and just the threat of oil kept tourists away for months,' Shoaf recalls. 'Businesses were forced to close, jobs were lost, and the disaster reshaped our region forever.' Those memories were freshly triggered in April 2024, when the Florida department of environmental protection (DEP) granted a permit to Louisiana-based Clearwater Land and Minerals for exploratory oil drilling on the Apalachicola River basin. So area residents, along with environmental and business groups, formed a Kill the Drill coalition to oppose the permit. A year later, the coalition's efforts and an administrative challenge to the DEP's permit by the non-profit Apalachicola Riverkeepers prevailed when Judge Lawrence P Stevenson recommended the department deny the permit. In May, the DEP reversed course and denied the permit. But that was not enough to convince those seeking to preserve the region's environment. Shoaf, who represents Florida's north-eastern Gulf coast region, applauded the DEP's decision but says the threat of oil exploration and drilling near north Florida's inland waterways would only be ended by a permanent ban. So to prevent future threats and the DEP from issuing other oil exploratory drilling permits, Shoaf and state representative Allison Tant co-authored House Bill 1143. 'While the permit to Clearwater Land and Minerals was denied, we can't assume the next one will be,' Shoaf says. 'HB 1143 protects our precious water resources and the ecosystems that depend on them by prohibiting drilling, exploration and production of oil, gas and other petroleum products within 10 miles of a national estuarine research reserve in counties designated as rural areas of opportunity. It also requires the Florida department of environmental protection to ensure natural resources are adequately protected in the event of an accident.' In April, the legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 1143 with only one dissenting vote in the Senate. It was presented to Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, on 18 June. And, despite a poor recent record on protecting the environment, DeSantis signed the bill last week – handing the coalition that lobbied for it a cheering victory. The area now saved from the oil industry is invaluable both to nature and the people who live there. The Apalachicola River, formed by the meeting of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, flows 160 miles (258km) to the Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf. Both the river and bay are critical to the region's tourism and seafood production industries. For environmental campaigners, the success of their efforts might help lay to rest the ghosts of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, which released nearly 3.19m barrels of oil into the gulf. 'Oil from the BP spill didn't reach our coasts, but the damage caused by the threat was enough,' Tant says. 'We've seen what can happen. We've lived it. This is not theoretical. It was a perilous time for small businesses and for those who lived in the area. It stopped tourism and shuttered small businesses. So it defies logic to think it's a good idea to drill for oil along the Apalachicola River.' Adrianne Johnson is executive director of the Florida Shellfish Aquaculture Association which represents more than 350 shellfish farmers in Florida. Johnson, an Apalachicola native, became involved in the Kill the Drill movement for personal and business reasons. 'This region has a deep collective memory of how the Gulf oil spill devastated the regional economy and collapsed the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay,' Johnson explains. 'And that was just the threat of oil. The majority of the state's oyster farms operate across Wakulla, Franklin and Gulf counties, and these areas downriver would be most impacted by oil drilling upriver (at the proposed site in Calhoun county). If there were to be a spill upriver because of drilling in the basin, it would have catastrophic environmental and economic impacts on the area that would be felt for generations.' Johnson also points to the region's frequent weather-related natural disasters, such as hurricanes, as another reason why drilling had to be banned in the region. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'Our shellfish farmers are still recovering from the multiple hurricanes of 2024,' she explains. 'But the reality of being a Florida farmer is having to contend with these weather-related events. Hurricanes and natural disasters are outside of our control. Permitting oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas is very much within our control and is an unnecessary threat to our industry.' Tant agrees. 'We are a hurricane-prone state,' she says. 'We can't get away from that. It's not a question of will we get hit by a hurricane because we know it's going to happen. But an oil spill caused by a hurricane would make the disaster 100 times worse.' According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the Deep Horizon oil spill caused the loss of 8.3 billion oysters, the deaths of nearly 105,400 sea birds, 7,600 adult and 160,000 juvenile sea turtles, and a 51% decrease in dolphins in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. Craig Diamond, current board member and past president of Apalachicola Riverkeeper, says another factor behind the ban was the river system itself. 'A spill would be highly impactful given the existing stresses in the system,' says Diamond, who has worked with the Northwest Florida Water Management District and taught graduate courses on water resources at Florida State University. 'Apalachicola Bay Riverkeeper and its allies believe the long-term risks of fossil fuel exploitation in the floodplain or bay (or nearshore) far outweigh the short-term benefits.' Shoaf says he was inspired to write HB 1143 by the community's grassroots efforts to defend the region's natural resources. 'This bill is essential to prevent unnecessary and irreparable harm to Apalachicola Bay, as well as the economies and ecosystems that depend on it,' he says. After DeSantis signed the bill into law, the threat of drilling has now receded into the distance for the foreseeable future.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Infamous televangelist Jimmy Swaggart's death isn't the end... how scandal-ridden 'man of God' paved the way for a sinister new breed of celebrity preachers
When it came to preaching the Word of the Lord, fire-and-brimstone televangelist Jimmy Swaggart didn't care who he offended in his mission to persuade millions to let Jesus into their life. 'Don't try to bargain with Jesus - he's a Jew,' he roared from his Louisiana pulpit. Catholicism was a 'false cult,' and Jews had brought the Holocaust on themselves by rejecting Christ.
