The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.
Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.
The supreme court’s order on Thursday came after the court’s conservative majority last month decided that immigration officials can quickly deport people to countries to which they have no connection. That order paused a district judge’s earlier ruling that immigrants being sent to third countries must first be given an opportunity to prove they would face torture, persecution or death if they were sent there.
Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the eight men and executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the eight men could “face perilous conditions, and potentially immediate detention, upon arrival”.
Two liberal justices dissented – Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson – by saying the ruling gives the government special treatment. “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,” Sotomayor wrote.
“Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” she added.
The Trump administration has been seeking deals with various countries to accept deportees that the US government cannot quickly send back to their homelands.
The eight men awaiting deportation to South Sudan have all been convicted of serious crimes, which the Trump administration has emphasized in justifying their banishment. Many had either finished or were close to finishing serving sentences, and had “orders of removal” directing them to leave the US.
Some, like Tuan Thanh Phan – who came to the United States from Vietnam as a child and was convicted of killing someone in a gang altercation when he was 18 – had already planned to return to his home country after serving his sentence.
Instead, the US government first told these men that they would be deported to South Africa, and they were asked to sign documents acknowledging their deportation. They refused, and their case came before judge Brian E Murphy of the district of Massachusetts, who ruled that the government must provide “written notice” to any immigrant facing deportation to a third country, and give them an opportunity to voice a “reasonable fear” of torture.
The men were told instead that they were being deported to South Sudan. The government did not provide Murphy with immediate information about where the men were, and where they were being sent. Eventually, their flight landed in Camp Lemonnier, an American military base in Djibouti.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents worked 12-hour shifts guarding the men. In a sworn court declaration, an official described illness among the detainees and government agents, inadequate medical care, risks of malaria and worry about attacks from militants in Yemen.
In May, the Trump administration asked the supreme court to intervene and allow the government to deport the men to South Sudan.
They sought agreements with several countries to house immigrants if authorities could not quickly send them back to their homelands.
The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
