Trump administration South Sudan deportation attempt violated court order, judge says
Detainees play outside during a media tour of the Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC), hosted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Harlingen Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), in Los Fresnos, Texas, U.S., June 10, 2024. REUTERS/Veronica Gabriela Cardenas/Pool/File Photo
BOSTON/WASHINGTON - An attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to transfer migrants to South Sudan violated a judicial order not to send deportees to countries other than their own without opportunity to contest their removal, a U.S. judge said on Wednesday.
Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy made the finding during a hearing one day after he issued an order that the administration not let a group of migrants being flown to South Sudan to leave the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.
Murphy said he would leave the question of any criminal penalties for Department of Homeland Security officials who violated his order to another day.
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Department lawyer Elainis Perez confirmed that the plane carrying the deportees had landed but did not say where, citing "very serious operational and safety concerns." Perez also disputed Murphy's finding that the migrants were not given the chance to challenge their deportations.
Earlier on Wednesday, Homeland Security officials said at a press conference that the eight men being deported are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan, and were convicted of murder, armed robbery and other serious crimes.
South Sudan has long been dangerous even for locals. The U.S. State Department advises citizens not to travel there due to violent crime and armed conflict. The United Nations has said the African country's political crisis could reignite a brutal civil war that ended in 2018.
The migrants appeared to still be in U.S. custody. A U.S. official said at the hearing on Wednesday that they were currently sitting on a plane, but did not say where.
The case has echoes of other clashes between the administration and the courts in legal battles over the Republican president's aggressive immigration policies.
Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has said the administration violated his order to not transfer Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador until he could hear a case challenging the legality of their deportations under a 1798 law historically used only during wartime.
Greenbelt, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has said the administration has not adequately explained how it was complying with her order to "facilitate" the return of a Salvador man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador despite an earlier judicial order he not be sent there.
'VIOLENT INDIVIDUALS'
Trump took office in January pledging to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally. His administration has sought to send harder-to-deport migrants to "third countries" that are not their home country.
"We conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told reporters before the start of Wednesday's hearing. "These are the monsters that the district judge is trying to protect."
While McLaughlin did not confirm South Sudan as the intended destination, a department advisory for the press conference was titled "DHS Press Conference on Migrant Flight to South Sudan."
The effort prompted a legal challenge by immigrant advocates who said the affected migrants were not being given an opportunity to raise claims that they might be persecuted, tortured or killed if they are deported to countries not previously identified in their immigration proceedings.
Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, issued a preliminary injunction on April 18 designed to ensure that any migrants being sent a third country were provided due process under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment and a "meaningful opportunity" to raise any fears for their safety. REUTERS
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