WASHINGTON (Chatnewstv.com) — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport eight men, most of whom have no ties to South Sudan—to the war-torn East African nation, after weeks of detention at an American military base in Djibouti.
The court’s order, issued Thursday, follows a broader ruling last month by the conservative majority allowing immigration officials to expedite deportations to third countries, even when migrants have no connection to those nations. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that would have required the government to give detainees a chance to demonstrate a risk of torture or persecution in their destination country.
Seven of the eight men are citizens of countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba, and Myanmar. Only one is from South Sudan.
“This order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a sharp dissent joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“What the government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,” she added.
The men had been held for weeks at Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. military base in Djibouti, after the government attempted to deport them without notifying their legal representatives or providing clarity on their destination.
Trina Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and lead attorney for the men, said her clients could “face perilous conditions, and potentially immediate detention, upon arrival” in South Sudan.
All eight detainees have been convicted of serious crimes and were subject to final removal orders. While some, including Tuan Thanh Phan, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam as a child and was convicted of murder at 18, had agreed to return to their home countries after serving time, those countries refused to accept them.
Initially, the men were told they would be deported to South Africa and asked to sign papers confirming that plan. When they refused, the government later informed them they would instead be sent to South Sudan, without providing notice to a federal district judge in Massachusetts who was overseeing the case.
Judge Brian E. Murphy had previously ruled that migrants facing removal to third countries must be given written notice and a chance to express “reasonable fear” of torture. The government did not comply with that directive, and only later disclosed that the men had been flown to Djibouti.
According to court documents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents guarded the men in 12-hour shifts at Camp Lemonnier, where detainees and agents alike reportedly fell ill due to poor medical care and unsafe conditions, including exposure to malaria and threats from regional instability in nearby Yemen.
The Trump administration has been working to secure agreements with multiple countries willing to accept deportees who cannot be returned to their nations of origin. Why South Sudan, a country already facing political instability and internal conflict, agreed to accept the eight men remains unclear.
