May 21 (UPI) — A federal judge late Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to maintain custody of migrants being deported to South Sudan and other third-party countries in case the court finds their removal illegal and directs that they be returned to the United States.
Judge Brian Murphy issued his order in response to an emergency request filed Tuesday by lawyers who stated they have evidence that a Myanmar client, identified by the initials N.M., and a Vietnamese client, identified as T.T.P., were being deported to South Sudan in violation of a court order, with other migrants potentially facing the same situation.
In response, Murphy, a President Joe Biden appointee, said the court will allow the government to determine how it complies with the order but expects “that class members will be treated humanely.”
He also ordered the Trump administration to disclose during Wednesday’s prescheduled hearing the time and manner of each migrant’s notice of removal to a third country and what opportunity each had to raise fear-based claims against their removal.
Concerning N.M. the government must address the details of his removal, including when and where he was removed, as well as the names of those personally involved in his deportation and “any information currently in defendant’s possession regarding his current whereabouts.”
The ruling comes as part of a sprawling class action lawsuit filed in March challenging the Trump administration’s policy of sending migrants to third countries without prior notice or an opportunity to contest their removal on the basis of fear of persecution, torture or death if removed from the United States.
In mid-April, Murphy issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the government from deporting migrants to a third country without notice and an opportunity to contest their removal.
Lawyers for the migrants on Tuesday accused the Trump administration in their filing of boarding N.M., T.T.P. and other migrants onto a plane for removal to South Sudan in violation of the preliminary injunction.
The filing states the government failed to provide both N.M. and T.T.P. with the opportunity to apply for U.N. Convention Against Torture protection with regard to South Sudan.
The lawyers argue that their motion should not have been necessary — just as a filing from two weeks ago should not have been required when they asked for and received an order from Murphy warning the Trump administration against similarly deporting migrants to Libya amid reports stating it was planning to do just that.
In his early May order, Murphy wrote: “If there is any doubt — the Court sees none — the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as Plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information would clearly violate this Court’s Order.”
