U.S. judge said Trump administration violated order by sending immigrants on flight to Africa

The Trump administration violated a federal court order by deporting eight immigrants with serious criminal records to third countries in a flight that lawyers said had been headed to strife-torn South Sudan.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts said that migrants from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, South Sudan and Mexico did not have a “meaningful opportunity to object to transfer” to the violence-racked country, in defiance of a court order. The judge said he would determine later what, if any, the punishment might be for the administration.

The decision came during a hearing at a federal courthouse in Boston to consider an emergency motion filed by attorneys after they learned their clients, two Asian immigrants held in detention in Texas, along with others, had been sent to South Sudan, which is engulfed in armed ethnic and political conflict and a refugee crisis that has displaced over 4 million people.

Lawyers for the U.S. government said detainees had enough time to raise concerns of credible fear with immigration officials at the detention center. And the men needed only 24 hours’ notice before being sent to a third country.

But Murphy, balked at that. From the time the men were told they would be deported on Monday evening to the time the plane took off was about 17 hours, the judge surmised, “obviously insufficient.”

He said the actions were “unquestionably violative of this court’s order.”

The men were still sitting in a plane on Wednesday morning, Pacific time, according to government officials who briefed the court.

Tom Cartwright, who tracks ICE flights, posted on X that a plane appearing to be the one carrying the eight deportees had landed in Djibouti, which is about 900 miles from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Murphy, a Biden appointee, asked the government whether it was feasible to conduct interviews with the men in custody to determine whether they had credible fear claims, as required by the court order.

The administration has been doubling down on efforts to remove immigrants, with little due process, to countries where they have no ties, defying court orders and testing the limits of executive power.

During a news conference Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security officials said South Sudan may not be the “final destination” for the eight immigrants removed from the U.S. a day earlier, despite attorneys’ declarations and a “Removal Order” naming the east-central African country as the end point. The officials said the immigrants had criminal records, were a public safety threat and would not be accepted by their home countries.

“Because of safety and operational security, we cannot tell you what the final destination for these individuals will be,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant public affairs secretary.

On Tuesday, Judge Murphy ordered the Trump administration to maintain custody of the immigrants.

“While the Court leaves the practicalities of compliance to Defendants’ discretion,” Murphy wrote, referring to the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, “the Court expects that class members will be treated humanely.”

McLaughlin said the immigrants remain in Homeland Security custody. She said the agency is following due process laws, adding that the detainees and their lawyers were given “plenty of prior notice.”

According to a fact sheet provided to reporters by the Department of Homeland Security, the detainees included one citizen of South Sudan and seven others from the other four countries. They were convicted of crimes including murder, attempted murder, robbery, lascivious acts with a child under 12, and sexual assault involving a victim who was mentally and physically incapable of resisting, according the federal officials.

Though the news conference was titled “DHS Press Conference on Migrant Flight to South Sudan,” McLaughlin said the State Department brokered an agreement with “a nation” willing to accept the detainees.

“President Trump is getting vicious illegal alien murderers, rapists, and pedophiles the hell out of our country,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt posted on X. “No matter how upset this makes Democrats — we will continue to deport these monsters to keep Americans safe.”

The officials stressed that the detainees’ countries of origin had refused to take them back. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, federal officials can instead remove such immigrants to a different country that is deemed a “safe third country.”

“As a career law enforcement officer and a career officer with ICE, I’ve been dealing with these recalcitrant countries for years,” said acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons. “Having to see repeated murderers, sex offenders, violent criminals re-released back into the United States because their home countries would not take them back.”

Asked whether South Sudan is considered a safe third country, Lyons deferred to the State Department. A travel advisory issued by the department warns U.S. travelers not to visit. “Armed conflict between various political and ethnic groups continues throughout the country,” it says, noting that kidnapping, road ambushes, armed robbery, murder and home invasion “are pervasive.”

Earlier this month, a group of immigrants in Texas detention, including some of the same detainees, were told they were being deported to Libya and brought to a plane, before Judge Murphy ordered the government to cancel the flight.

That politically unstable country in North Africa is beset by “terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” according to the State Department. Human rights groups have documented inhumane conditions at detention facilities and migrant camps, including torture, forced labor and rape.