WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the administration said it had expelled eight migrants convicted of violent crimes in the United States but refused to reveal where they would end up.
In an emergency hearing he called to address reports that immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston said the eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger. Minutes before the hearing, administration officials accused “activist judges” of advocating the release of dangerous criminals.
The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers who could object in court.
Government attorneys argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. They also said that immigration authorities may have misunderstood the order because the judge did no’t specify the time needed between notice and deportation.
The migrants’ home countries — Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan — would not take them back, according to Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who spoke to reporters in Washington just before the court hearing. He later said the migrants either came from countries that often do not take back all their deported citizens or had other situations that meant they could not be sent home.
“These represent the true national security threats,” Lyons said at a news conference. Behind him was a display of photos of men he said had been convicted of rape, homicide, armed robbery and other crimes.
President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “are working every single day to get these vicious criminals off of American streets — and while activist judges are on the other side, fighting to get them back onto the United States soil,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokesperson.
Homeland Security officials released few specific details about the deportation flight. They said the flight left Tuesday with eight people on board and that they remained in the department's custody Wednesday. Officials said they could not disclose the migrants' final destination because of “safety and operational security.”
The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight is the latest flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the president’s policies.
Lawsuits on immigration issues are everywhere
With Congress largely silent or supportive, opponents of Trump's agenda have filed hundreds of lawsuits and judges have issued dozens of orders against the administration. Immigration has been the most contentious issue. There is the mistaken deportation of an immigration who was living in Maryland to a prison in El Salvador, as well as Trump’s push to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court review.
“We see activist judges stepping in in a way that we have never seen before, to put criminals first and not the American people,” Madison Sheahan, the ICE deputy director, said at the news conference.
The administration officials insisted that the men had received due process, but did not provide any details. Immigration rights lawyers have said that the deportations violated a court order against sending people to countries other than their homelands without first allowing them to argue the removal could put them in danger.
Murphy had ruled Tuesday that the administration must retain custody and control of those “currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return” if he founds such removals were unlawful. Lawyers for immigrants said the administration appeared to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.
The judge left the details to the government's discretion, but said he expected the migrants “will be treated humanely.”
The countries of origin vary
Attorneys for the migrants told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent as many as a dozen people from several countries to Africa. The lawyers say that violates a court order that people have a “meaningful opportunity” to argue that sending them to a country outside their homeland would threaten their safety.
The apparent removal of one man from the troubled Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his lawyers learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.
A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa on Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.
Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would “clearly” violate his ruling, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.
South Sudan says it's unaware of any arrivals
South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived in the country and that if they do, they would be investigated and "redeported to their correct country" if found not to be South Sudanese.
Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States. That has led the administration to strike agreements with other countries, including Panama, to house them. The U.S. has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law, an action being contested in the courts.
South Sudan has endured repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the country’s top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.
The State Department’s annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says “significant human rights issues” include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.
The Homeland Security Department has given Temporary Protected Status to a small number of South Sudanese already living in the United States, shielding them from deportation because conditions were deemed unsafe for return. Noem recently extended those protections to November to allow for a more thorough review. South Sudan's diplomatic relations with the United States grew tense in April when a deportation row led to the revocation of visas and a ban on South Sudanese nationals.
The U.S is one of the biggest donors to South Sudan’s humanitarian aid programs with the total funding in 2024 standing at over $640 million.
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Casey reported from Boston and Sullivan from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
Lindsay Whitehurst, Michael Casey And Tim Sullivan, The Associated Press
