WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ordered U.S. officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions about the apparent deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries. Shortly before the hearing began, the Trump administration confirmed that it had deported eight people who had said they had been convicted of a crime in the United States, but the government refused to say what their final destination was.
Check out the DHS press conference with the players above.
The Department of Homeland Security said the home state of immigrants cannot receive them. I didn't explain in detail.
President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem “work every day to drive these vicious criminals out of the streets of America. While activist judges are on the other side, they fight to get them back to American soil.” She showed a photo of reporters' reporters in Decorties, describing them as being “tried to protect them.”
Immigration rights lawyers said they violated a court order to send people to countries outside their homelands without arguing that deportation could initially put removal at risk.
Read more: What is the habeas corpus and what did the Trump administration say about suspending it?
Murphy ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration must “hold custody and control of those currently being taken away by South Sudan or other third countries.” The immigration lawyer said the Republican administration appears to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan, despite court orders restricting removals to other countries.
The judge said he left the details to the government's discretion but expected immigrants to be “humanized.”
The immigration lawyer told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent dozens of people from several countries to Africa. The lawyer says he is violating a court order that people have a “meaning opportunity” that argues that sending people out to countries outside their homes would pose a threat to their safety.
Watch: NOEM fumbles definition of habeas corpus
The apparent removal of one man from Myanmar was confirmed in an email from a Texas immigration officer, according to court documents. He is notified in English only, he is a language he doesn't speak well, and his lawyers learned the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.
The woman also reported that her husband and up to 10 other people from Vietnam jumped into Africa on Tuesday morning, a lawyer for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.
The lawyers sought an emergency court order from Murphy to prevent deportation.
Murphy, who was appointed Democrat President Joe Biden, previously found that plans to expel people to Libya without notice “explicitly” violated his ruling.
Read more: Senate Republicans block democratic push for transparency against Trump's deportation into El Salvador
Murphy summoned US officials Wednesday to identify affected immigrants, identify when and how they learned to be moved to a third country, and the opportunities they were given to raise fear-based claims. He also determined that the government must provide information on where the migrants are.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Major General James Monday Enoka, a South Sudan police spokesman, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that migrants have not arrived in the country and if they are likely, they will be investigated and once again “recharge their right country” if it turns out to be non-South Sudanese.
Some countries do not accept deportation from the United States. This led the administration to attack agreements with other countries, including Panama. The United States sent Venezuelans to the infamous prisons in El Salvador under 18th century wartime laws, filing a lawsuit contested in court.
South Sudan has endured a wave of repeated violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. They hope that they can use their large oil reserves to bring prosperity to areas that have long been abused by poverty. Just a few weeks ago, the country's top UN official warned that the battle between the troops loyal to the president and vice president had threatened to threaten the Spiral again into a full-scale civil war.
The situation “darkly reminiscent of the conflicts of 2013 and 2016, claiming that Nicholas Heysom, head of the UN peacekeeping mission of almost 20,000 people, claimed more than 400,000 lives.”
The State Department's annual report on South Sudan, released in April 2024, states that “critical human rights issues” include arbitrary murder, loss, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces, and widespread violence based on gender and sexual identity.
The Department of Homeland Security grants a small number of South Sudanese people who already live in the United States a temporary protected status and protects them from deportation as conditions were deemed unsafe for return. Secretary Christy Noem recently expanded these protections in November to allow for a more thorough review.
South Sudan's diplomatic relations with the US were strained in April when deportation proceedings led to visa cancellations and bans on South Sudanian citizens.
According to the US Embassy in South Sudan, the US is one of the largest donors to South Sudan's humanitarian programs, with total funding exceeding $640 million in 2024.
Associated Press authors Tim Sullivan of Minneapolis, Elliot Spagut of San Diego and Rebecca Santana contributed to the report.
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