Immigration Law
Judge orders US to maintain custody of migrants possibly sent to Africa, says US violated his order
A federal judge in Boston said Wednesday the Trump administration “unquestionably” violated his preliminary injunction requiring meaningful notice before removals to third countries when it deported eight men to a country that the United States refused to identify. (Photo from Shutterstock)
Updated: A federal judge in Boston said Wednesday the Trump administration “unquestionably” violated his preliminary injunction requiring meaningful notice before removals to third countries when it deported eight men to a country that the United States refused to identify.
The finding by U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of the District of Massachusetts “was one of the strongest judicial rebukes the administration has faced so far in a series of contentious cases arising from its sprawling deportation agenda,” the New York Times reports.
Murphy said he would not decide at this time whether the government’s conduct was “criminally contemptuous,” Politico reports. But he did request a list of people who could be notified about a possible contempt proceeding.
Murphy scheduled hearings Tuesday and Wednesday in response to an emergency request by attorneys who said their clients were told that they were being removed to South Sudan, a country in East Africa.
On Tuesday, Murphy ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to maintain custody of migrants flown to third countries, meaning countries other than their own, while he considers whether the removals violated his previous due process order.
In his May 20 order, Murphy also told the government to be prepared to name the affected migrants at the Wednesday hearing and to address the time and the notice that they received before removal to a country where they are not citizens.
According to the New York Times, Murphy’s order on Tuesday “capped a tumultuous hearing hastily called by the judge, during which Trump officials said they could not say where the flight was or where it was going.”
The officials also declined to name the country at the Wednesday hearing. Much of the hearing was closed to outsiders.
Murphy is presiding in a class action lawsuit filed in response to a government review of cases to determine whether migrants could be sent to a third country if they were protected from removal to their home country, Reuters reports. His April 18 preliminary injunction required adequate notice to allow the migrants to contest the removals based on a fear of torture or persecution.
The eight men are citizens of Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan, Burma and Vietnam, according to documents from the Department of Homeland Security that were cited by the New York Times, Politico and ABC News. The men had been convicted of crimes that included murder, sexual assault and robbery. A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said at a news conference the crimes were “uniquely monstrous and barbaric.”
A South Sudan spokesperson told the Associated Press that migrants arriving in the country would be investigated and “re-deported to their correct country.”
The wire service reports that South Sudan “has suffered repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.” The country’s top United Nations official recently warned that the country could be facing a civil war.
The Trump administration has previously clashed over deportations with Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia. He ruled last month that there is probable cause to find the government in criminal contempt for sending Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador in Central America in violation of his previous injunction.
The Trump administration had cited the Alien Enemies Act to justify removals in the case before Boasberg. The migrants in the case before Murphy are already subject to a final notice of removal after a hearing before an immigration judge, the New York Times explains.
Updated May 21 at 2:30 p.m. to include reporting and information on the Wednesday hearing.
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