A federal judge has said the deportation of eight men to South Sudan “unquestionably” violated his order that migrants must be allowed to challenge their removal to third countries.
Judge Brian Murphy’s finding on Wednesday was the latest turn in a fast-evolving dispute.
One day earlier, he ordered US authorities to keep custody of the men, over concerns that the US had violated his injunction against sending migrants to countries other than their own without allowing them to raise concerns.
The Department of Homeland Security has said it was seeking to deport “uniquely barbaric monsters” who were convicted of crimes including murder, and South Sudan was not their final destination.
At a hearing on Wednesday Judge Murphy said the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to deport the men “are unquestionably violative of this court’s order”, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
“I don’t see how anybody could say that these individuals had a meaningful opportunity to object,” Judge Murphy said.
Justice Department attorneys said his orders were unclear and had led to “misunderstanding”.
Earlier, a lawyer for the Justice Department confirmed the aircraft carrying the deportees had landed but did not say where, citing “very serious operational and safety concerns”, as reported by Reuters.
The judge has said he would decide on another day whether he would hold Homeland Security officials in contempt of court.
Earlier on Wednesday, the department shared on X the photographs, nationalities and criminal convictions of eight men on board the deportation flight.
They are listed as citizens of Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told a briefing earlier on Wednesday: “Every single one of them was convicted of a heinous crime, murder, rape, child rape, rape of a mentally and physically handicapped victim.”
She said it was “absurd for a US judge to try to dictate the foreign policy and national security of the US”.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said: “If we don’t have a country that’ll take their citizens back, we do have an option to find a safe third country.”
They did not specify where the migrants might ultimately be bound.
Judge Murphy issued a ruling on 18 April requiring that illegal migrants have a “meaningful opportunity” to challenge their removal to countries other than their homelands.
After learning the men were on a flight leaving the country, he quickly scheduled a hearing on Tuesday where he said the migrants must remain in the government’s custody and be “treated humanely”. He did not order the plane to turn back to the US.
One of the deported men was Nyo Myint, a citizen of Myanmar. According to homeland security, he had been convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 12 years of confinement. He was arrested by immigration authorities on 19 February, and was detained in Texas.
In August 2023, an immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska, issued Myint a final order of removal, according to court documents filed by groups representing multiple deportees.
His immigration attorney, Jonathan Ryan, told the BBC that his client had received two conflicting deportation notices on 19 May.
The first, which arrived at about 10:59 local time, notified Myint he would be sent to South Africa, but subsequent several hours later declared he would be taken to South Sudan.
Both notices were provided in English, a language that Mr Ryan said his client barely speaks. On Tuesday, Mr Ryan said he was notified that Myint was being removed from the country.
“I have no idea where he is,” Mr Ryan said. “He’s been disappeared by the United States government.”
Mr Ryan acknowledged his client’s criminal record, but said he and the other deportees were still entitled to the same due process rights as any other individual.
“These people were purposefully selected by the government for this maneuver, to divert our attention from the government’s blatant disregard for a federal judicial order,” he said.
“If we allow the government to pick and choose who deserves due process and who has rights, we’re relinquishing all rights,” he said.
As it accelerates and expands deportations, the Trump administration is working with other countries to accept both their citizens removed from the US, as well as citizens of other nations. Most notably, it sent migrants it said were originally from Venezuela to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
Rwanda confirmed it was in such talks with the US, while Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Moldova have all been named in media reports.
In early April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the US was revoking visas issued to all South Sudanese passport holders because the African nation was refusing to accept its citizens who had been removed from the US.
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