Judge orders US officials to appear in court to answer questions about migrants sent to South Sudan

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has ordered U.S. officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions about their apparent deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts ruled late Tuesday that the Trump 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 finds such removals were unlawful. Lawyers for immigrants said the Republican administration appears 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 expects the migrants “will be treated humanely.”

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 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.

The lawyers asked Murphy for an emergency court order to prevent the deportations.

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.

Murphy summoned U.S. officials to court Wednesday to identify the migrants impacted, address when and how they learned they would be removed to a third country and what opportunity they were given to raise a fear-based claim. He also ruled that the government must provide information about the whereabouts of the migrants apparently already removed.

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

South Sudan’s police spokesperson Major General 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 again “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 situation is “darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts, which took over 400,000 lives,” Nicholas Haysom, head of the almost 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission.

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. Secretary Kristi Noem recently extended those protections to November to allow for a more thorough review.

South Sudan’s diplomatic relations with the U.S 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, according to the U.S embassy in South Sudan.

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Associated Press writers Tim Sullivan in Minneaopolis, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Rebecca Santana in contributed to this report.