WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt an order allowing migrants to challenge their deportations to South Sudan, an appeal that came hours after the judge suggested the Trump administration was “manufacturing” chaos and said he hoped that “reason can get the better of rhetoric.”
Judge Brian Murphy found the White House violated a court order with a deportation flight bound for the chaotic African nation carrying people from other countries who had been convicted of crimes in the U.S. He said those immigrants must get a real chance to raise any fears that being sent there could put them in danger.
The federal government argued that Murphy has stalled its efforts to carry out deportations of migrants who can’t be returned to their home countries. Finding countries willing to take them is a “a delicate diplomatic endeavor" and the court requirements are a major setback, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in an emergency appeal asking the court to immediately halt his order.
Murphy, for his part, said he had given the Trump administration “remarkable flexibility with minimal oversight” in the case and emphasized the numerous times he attempted to work with the government, according to an order published Monday night.
This is the latest case where federal judges weighing in on the legality of the Trump administration’s sweeping agenda have used forceful, sometimes even scathing, language to register their displeasure. The Trump administration has accused judges of thwarting the will of voters by stopping or slowing the White House agenda.
The judge said the men couldn't advocate for themselves
In a hearing last week called to address reports that eight immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Murphy said the men hadn't been able to argue that the deportation could put them in danger.
But instead of ordering the government to return the men to the U.S. for hearings — as the plaintiffs wanted — he gave the government the option of holding the hearings in Djibouti, where the plane had flown on its way to South Sudan, as long as the men remained in U.S. government custody. Days later, the Trump administration filed another motion saying that Murphy was requiring them to hold “dangerous criminals in a sensitive location."
Murphy, though, said it was the government's “own suggestion” that they be allowed to process the men's claims while they were still abroad.
“It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than Defendants anticipated,” the Boston-based Murphy, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote.
The government has argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. And they've said that the men's home countries — Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan — would not take them back.
“The district court’s invented process offers little but delay. While certain aliens may benefit from stalling their removal, the nation does not,” wrote Sauer. Keeping the migrants in Djibouti has also strained the U.S. relationship with that country, officials have said.
The administration has also repeatedly emphasized the men's criminal histories in the U.S. and portrayed them as national security threats.
The administration is relying on third countries
The Trump administration has increasingly relied on third countries to take immigrants who cannot be sent to their home countries for various reasons. Some countries simply refuse to take back their citizens being deported while others take back some but not all of their citizens. And some cannot be sent to their home countries because of concerns they'll be tortured or harmed.
Historically that has meant that immigration enforcement officials have had to release people into the U.S. that it wants to deport but can’t.
But the Trump administration has leaned on other countries to take them. In the Western Hemisphere, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have all agreed to take some people being removed from the U.S., with El Salvador being the most controversial example because it is holding people deported from the U.S. in a notorious prison.
The Trump administration has said it’s exploring other third countries for deportations.
Murphy said in his order that the eight men were initially told May 19 they'd be going to South Africa and then later that same day were told they were going to South Sudan. He noted that the U.S. government “has issued stark warnings regarding South Sudan.”
He said the men had fewer than 16 hours between being told they were going to be removed and going to the airport, “most of which were non-waking hours," and “limited, if any” ability to talk to family or a lawyer. “From the course of conduct, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that Defendants invite a lack of clarity as a means of evasion,” the judge wrote.
