On Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston ordered the Trump administration not to release a group of migrants from US immigration authorities after they were flown to South Sudan. US District Judge Brian Murphy stated that there was a strong indication that his previous order barring the deportation of migrants to countries other than their own before any concerns of torture or persecution could be raised had been violated. He warned that officials could be held in criminal contempt if they were found to have violated this order.
Murphy, who was appointed by Joe Biden, said that any migrants covered by the injunction en route to South Sudan must remain in government custody until a further hearing on Wednesday. He also stated that the Department of Homeland Security could find alternative ways to hold the migrants, including keeping them on the plane once it lands.
The agency did not respond to requests for comment. This issue highlights the ongoing conflict between the federal judiciary and the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Another judge in Washington recently found probable cause to hold officials accountable for criminal contempt for violating a similar order. The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a 1798 law, citing a lack of due process.
The class-action lawsuit brought before Murphy was filed after the Department of Homeland Security instructed immigration officers to review cases of individuals who had been granted protections from removal to their home countries to see if they could be redetained and sent to a third country. Murphy issued a preliminary injunction on April 18 to ensure that migrants being sent to a third country were provided due process and a chance to raise safety concerns under the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs informed the court that nearly a dozen migrants held at a detention facility in Texas were to be flown to South Sudan, which has been facing dangerous conditions even for locals. The United Nations warned that the country’s political crisis could reignite the civil war that ended in 2018.
Among the migrants on the plane was a Vietnamese man
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/judge-migrants-south-sudan
