After informing that a deportation flight with eight migrants left Texas for South Sudan this week, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration violated an earlier order.
The judge of the District Court Brian Murphy, in Massachusetts, said during the hearing that the Trump administration did not adhere to its previous court order preventing people from being sent to a country other than their own without giving them the opportunity to increase the fears of pursuit or torture. It was issued in March.
It occurs after the National Security Department confirmed during a press conference on Wednesday morning that eight people from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan were deported this week. They all had violent criminal convictions.
«The actions of the department in this question are undoubtedly violators of the order of this court,» Murphy told the court.
The government lawyers said that migrants are still in ice custody and that the plane has landed since then. They refused to share the location of the final destination of the plane.
A travel advice from the State Department warns of Americans who do not go to South Sudan «due to crime, kidnapping and armed conflict» and points out that in March, due to the situation there, the department «ordered the departure of employees of the United States government non -emergency of South Sudan.»
Murphy, who informed the Court about the sequence of events that led to deportation after talking with government lawyers outside the public, said that people were notified of their destination «at some point in the night» on Monday, outside business hours. He added that they left the ice facilities the next morning «no later than 10 am and as soon as possible before 9 am.»
Without enough time to consult a lawyer or relatives, the judge said it was «impossible» that these people «have a significant opportunity to object to their deportation to a third country.
The hearing occurs after immigration lawyers told Murphy that at least two of his clients, of Myanmar and Vietnam, were deported Tuesday morning to South Sudan.
South Sudan could go to another civil war. A 2018 shared power agreement between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, ended five years of civil war. But earlier this year, the violent clashes between the factions have increased once more.
Earlier this month, Murphy had blocked the Trump administration attempt to deport people from countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Libya. Then, Murphy had reaffirmed his court order on the deportations of the third country in response to an emergency motion of migrant lawyers.
