Judge orders US officials to testify about migrant deportations to South Sudan

A federal judge has ordered U.S. officials to attend an emergency hearing on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, to explain the apparent deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries.

This was despite existing legal restrictions.

The order was issued by U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts late Tuesday.

He instructed the Trump administration to maintain custody and control of individuals currently being deported to South Sudan or any other third country.

This is to ensure that, should the court determine the deportations were unlawful, the individuals could feasibly be returned.

Judge Murphy emphasized that while the government may choose how to manage the situation, he expects those in custody to be treated humanely.

Attorneys representing the migrants argued that the administration has begun deporting individuals from some countries.

The countries include Myanmar and Vietnam, and they are reportedly deporting them to South Sudan, apparently in defiance of a court ruling.

This prior ruling had restricted such deportations and guaranteed individuals a meaningful opportunity to argue that being sent to a third country would put their safety at risk.

According to court documents, the deportation of a man from Myanmar has already taken place.

An immigration official in Texas confirmed this in an email.

The official noted that the man had been informed only in English, a language he does not speak fluently.

His legal team was only made aware of the deportation hours before the flight.

In another case, a woman reported that her husband from Vietnam, had been flown to Africa on Tuesday morning.

According to her, he was flown to Africa along with up to ten other individuals.

These events were detailed in a filing by attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, who requested an emergency order to halt further deportations.

Judge Murphy, appointed by President Joe Biden, has previously ruled that any effort to deport individuals to countries like Libya without proper notice would clearly violate the court’s order.

His ruling also covers individuals who have already exhausted all legal avenues for appeal.

In his latest directive, Murphy called on U.S. officials to:

• identify the individuals affected by these removals,
• explain when and how they were informed of their impending deportation, and,
• clarify what opportunity they were given to make fear-based claims.

The judge also demanded that the government disclose the current locations of those who may have already been deported.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the White House responded to media inquiries on the matter.

On Wednesday, South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Major General James Monday Enoka, told the Associated Press that no deported migrants had arrived in the country.

He stated that if such individuals did arrive, they would be subject to investigation and potentially deported again to their country of origin if determined not to be South Sudanese.

The situation stems in part from the fact that some nations refuse to accept deportees from the United States.

As a result, the U.S. has formed agreements with other countries, such as Panama, to house these individuals.

In some cases, such as with Venezuelans, the U.S. has controversially deported people to prisons in El Salvador using an antiquated wartime statute, an action now facing legal challenges.

South Sudan remains an unstable and dangerous destination.

The country, which gained independence in 2011, has seen repeated outbreaks of violence.

Just weeks ago, the top United Nations official in the country warned that tensions between factions loyal to the president and vice president could escalate into another full-scale civil war.

Nicholas Haysom, the head of the nearly 20,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, said the current situation echoes the devastating conflicts of 2013 and 2016, which claimed over 400,000 lives.

The U.S. State Department’s 2024 human rights report on South Sudan details numerous abuses.

It included arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture, and violence targeting individuals based on gender or sexual identity.

The Department of Homeland Security has granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to some South Sudanese nationals living in the U.S.

It thus shielded them from deportation due to unsafe conditions in their home country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently extended those protections through November to allow for further assessment.

Diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and South Sudan escalated in April after a dispute over deportations led to the revocation of visas and a ban on South Sudanese nationals.

Despite the strained relations, the U.S. remains one of the largest contributors to humanitarian aid in South Sudan, providing more than $640 million in funding in 2024, according to the U.S. embassy in Juba.

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