The same federal judge who heard the emergency hearing on Tuesday had issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration preventing them from deporting a group of immigrants to Libya
For the second time in the last two weeks, immigration attorneys took the Trump administration to federal court over its attempts to deport small groups of migrants to a war-torn country not their own.
Immigration attorneys told the court that at least two of their clients from Myanmar and Vietnam were deported to South Sudan in violation of a court order. The attorneys for the migrants demanded that the court order their return to the United States.
“The Court should further restrain all flights carrying class members to South Sudan or any other third country,” the attorneys said.
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During an emergency hearing Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy told the Trump administration to “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country.” The judge wrote in a court order that this is to “ensure the practical feasibility of return” if the removals are found to have violated the law.
A further hearing on the case is scheduled for Wednesday, where the judge has asked the administration to identify those being removed, the type of notice those individuals received and opportunities they had to “raise a fear-based claim” before their removal to a third country. A fear claim is generally considered to be when an individual expresses fear of persecution or torture should they be deported.
The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly commented on the matter and The Mirror US has not been able to independently verify that a deportation flight to South Sudan had occurred.
According to a State Department travel advisory, Americans should not travel to South Sudan “due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” and notes that in March, the department “ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees from South Sudan.”
Both immigrants, alleged to have been sent to South Sudan on Tuesday, were subject to final removal orders permitting the government to deport them to their countries of origin, according to court filings.
Attorneys for the immigrants included in court filings an email from the wife of a Vietnamese immigrant, who alleged that her husband and 10 other people were deported to South Sudan Tuesday morning. She said the immigrants refused to sign documents facilitating their deportations to a country not their own.
The woman, whose name was redacted in the filing, wrote to her husband’s attorneys, “The order of removal signed by a judge is to deport my husband back to his country of origin, Vietnam, not to any other third country.”
Similarly, the Trump administration earlier this month attempted to deport a plane full of migrants to Libya before being blocked by a federal judge who issued a temporary restraining order. The immigrants were from countries like the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos, according to an emergency motion their lawyers filed at the time.
In his order, the judge said the immigrants must be given notice and the chance to raise concerns about possible torture or persecution. The attempt to stop or reverse the deportations to South Sudan is before the same judge.
The immigration attorneys believe that at least one of the people suspected of being sent to South Sudan was one of the people the Trump administration had tried to send to Libya. If that is the case and the immigrant had in fact been sent to South Sudan on Tuesday, the Trump administration’s actions would likely violate the previous court order.
