US deports Asian migrants to South Sudan: Lawyers tell court

Immigration lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday that the US government may have deported migrants from countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan, an East African nation facing conflict and instability.

In an emergency request to a court in Massachusetts, the lawyers said this flight would violate an earlier ruling by Judge Brian Murphy. That order barred the Trump administration from sending migrants to third countries without first giving them proper legal rights to challenge the deportation.

The lawyers said migrants sent to South Sudan face a serious risk of harm, citing reports of widespread violence, human rights abuses, and ongoing conflict in the country.

They said they learned that about a dozen migrants held at a detention centre in Texas were flown to South Sudan on Tuesday morning. During an urgent virtual hearing, Judge Murphy told a lawyer from the Department of Justice that this potential violation could amount to criminal contempt, and he was considering ordering the plane to turn around.

Court documents state that one of the migrants was a man from Myanmar, identified only as NM. His lawyer received an email on Monday from a US immigration official, informing them that NM would be deported to South Sudan.

NM, who has limited English skills, refused to sign the deportation notice because it was only provided in English—breaching a court order that requires such notices to be understandable to the migrant.

His lawyers later learned that he had been flown to South Sudan on Tuesday morning.

The wife of a Vietnamese man, who was held at the same detention centre in Texas, also informed his lawyer that he and 10 others had been deported, according to the filing.

The lawyers asked the judge to issue an emergency order to stop such deportations unless the migrants are first given the opportunity to appear in court.

This is a developing story.