The Trump administration violated a court order
The Trump Administration’s decision to send migrants to non-history destinations in the U.S. is a violation of the Alien Enemies Act
The administration decided to send migrants to countries that aren’t their own, after a legal challenge. It is trying to use third-country destinations to remove people that can’t be removed from their home countries for a variety of reasons.
They also urged federal Judge Brian Murphy to immediately order the return of any migrants who may have already been deported to these “third countries,” or places they’re not from originally, according to a court filing on Tuesday.
Migrants from Myanmar, Vietnam and other countries who do not have legal status to remain in the U.S. received notices on Monday that they would be deported, their lawyers said.
One person originally from Myanmar had been removed to South Sudan according to a declaration from their lawyer when they tried to contact them on Tuesday.
The judicial order against deportations to third countries without a due process violates the Trump administration’s actions to deport their clients, they argued.
The Department of Homeland Security has already deported more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador. It said that some of the men could be deported using the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law that allows for immediate removal from a country. The Trump administration has also paid El Salvador $6 million to house them.
Human rights groups were concerned about the violence in Libya, but the administration was willing to send migrants there.
Is the Deportation of Eight Black Men During the 2017 South Sudan War a Crime against the Government of the United Nations? A National Law Enforcement Attorney’s Report
South Sudan endured a long civil war that killed more than 50,000 people until a fragile peace halted the fighting in 2018. The government and rebels still have fighting going on. Many, including the United Nations, worry about the prospect of the country tipping into civil war again.
The Department of Homeland Security’s deportation of eight migrants abroad was against a preliminary injunction that judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts had issued in April. Lawyers for at least one of the men on board say the flight landed in South Sudan; the government hasn’t disclosed the destination, saying it’s classified.
“The department’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order. Murphy said during the hearing on Wednesday that a question of criminal obstruction might be resolved for another day. “Based on what I have learned, I don’t see how anybody could say that these individuals had a meaningful opportunity to object.”
At least seven men stayed on the plane as the court hearing in Boston proceeded on Wednesday, with the federal judge unsure of their fate.
ICE could not deport people who were deported to their home countries because of their convictions in the U.S., an acting director told reporters on Wednesday.
“We found a nation who was willing to take custody of these vicious illegal aliens,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, about the Asian men on the flight. A judge in Massachusetts wants the United States to bring back some barbaric monsters who pose a serious threat to the safety of the American people.
After the immigration lawyers filed a motion, Murphy ordered them to give his client notice before flying him to South Sudan, one of the most politically unstable countries in the world.
Jonathan Ryan, a lawyer with the legal nonprofit Advokato, told NPR that what is striking is the complete lack of information the group is working with. Ryan said he doesn’t know the full name of his client, who is thought to have been sent to South Sudan, but he knows him as “N.M.”
N.M. does not speak English. Ryan began looking for an interpreter, but by the next day, was informed his client had been moved to another facility, further away. In a second phone call, despite background noise and his client’s broken English, he was able to discern that his client had been given paperwork, which he’d refused to sign.
By Monday afternoon, Ryan was perplexed when he received an email from ICE saying his client was being sent to South Africa. Shortly thereafter he received another notification from ICE: his client was being sent to South Sudan.
Government officials in a Tuesday hearing said that ultimately N.M. was going to be sent to his home country ofBurma, even though he was being sent to two other countries first.
I would like to speak with my client. Ryan wants him to tell him that he is in a different country. “Because I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned, he’s sitting in South Sudan with a guard potentially of the United States, potentially of South Sudan, hovering over him, telling him to tell me that he is in Burma. We aren’t sure what’s happening.
Government lawyers at Wednesday’s court hearing said people sent on the flight could have expressed fear of being sent to another country before they were loaded on the plane, but didn’t.
“We believe the individuals had an opportunity” to protest their deportations, said Elianis Perez, an immigration lawyer at the Justice Department. The court’s preliminary injunction wasn’t specific enough to cause a misunderstanding, I think.
The government believes that they didn’t comply with my order because they don’t know if any of the people were yelling to their jailers that they weren’t going to South Sudan. That is plainly insufficient,” Murphy said during Wednesday’s hearing.
The men in the case only got 17 hours of notice before they were removal, but he clarified that 24 hours’ notice is not enough. The Justice Department says that 24 hours is enough, while the lawyers say that 30 days is enough.
Murphy had earlier ordered the Department of Homeland Security to keep custody of migrants sent to South Sudan, or any third country, until he can verify they received proper due process.
Lawyers for the men asked that they be brought back to the U.S., but Drew Ensign, a Department of Justice attorney, asked that DHS officials be allowed to interview them about their fear of persecution of being sent to another country while they remain in U.S. custody abroad.
The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about where a recent plane full of migrants was sent, and what their ultimate destination was.
The spokesman denied that any flights from the U.S. were arriving by Wednesday evening. He said any non-South Sudanese migrants arriving in the country would be re-deported to their correct country of origin.
South Sudan is not the first country to voice an opposition to being a so-called third country. There were reports that Libya would take in Americans deported from the United States if they were not Libyans.
Other countries such as El Salvador and Mexico have served as these third country destinations for migrants who cannot be sent back to their home countries, as the U.S. seeks more destinations for people it wants to deport from the U.S.
Immigrant tip line: Contact Jasmine Garsd and Ximena Bustillo at 202-713-6697
If you have immigration tips you can contact our tip line, on Whatsapp and Signal: 202-713-6697 or reporters Jasmine Garsd: [email protected] and Ximena Bustillo [email protected]
