Politico - Trump admin deports immigrants to South Sudan in violation of court order, lawyers say

Their lawyers say they learned of the deportation plan after receiving an abrupt notice Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, the men were already on a plane.

By Kyle Cheney

05/20/2025 04:50 PM EDT

Updated: 05/20/2025 04:59 PM EDT

The Trump administration has deported at least two immigrants to war-torn South Sudan in defiance of a federal court order, according to attorneys for the immigrants.

The two men are originally from Myanmar and Vietnam and were being held in U.S. immigration custody. Their lawyers say they learned of the deportation plan after receiving an abrupt notice Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, the men were already on a plane along with as many as 10 other deportees, the lawyers said.

The lawyers revealed these details in an emergency motion to a federal judge in Boston who has already forbidden the Trump administration from sending foreign nationals to so-called “third-party countries,” rather than their country of origin, without providing “meaningful” notice and a chance to raise concern about torture.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, has already intervened once before when the Trump administration seemed poised to deport people to Libya, a country that, like South Sudan, is mired in a humanitarian crisis. Murphy declared that summary deportations to Libya would “clearly” violate his earlier order.

Lawyers for the Burmese man, identified by the initials N.M. in court papers, say he was originally slated to be on one of those flights to Libya, which they say were aborted amid national media and legal scrutiny. They also say the notice to N.M. about the deportation to South Sudan was provided only in English, apparently violating another requirement of Murphy’s order because N.M. has limited English proficiency.

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