US judge clears path for eight immigrants to be deported to South Sudan

Justice department says the men – including nationals from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar – will be flown to South Sudan

Eight migrants lost their last-ditch effort to halt their deportation to South Sudan by the Trump administration on Friday, clearing the way for their imminent transfer after a judge in Massachusetts denied their request.

Lawyers for the justice department said the men were scheduled to be flown to South Sudan on Friday at 7pm Eastern Time after two courts considered the request on an emergency basis on 4 July, when courts were otherwise closed for the Independence Day holiday.

Lawyers for the migrants had filed new claims in Washington late on Thursday after the supreme court clarified that a judge in Massachusetts could no longer require the US Department of Homeland Security to hold them.

District judge Randolph Moss in Washington paused the deportation briefly on Friday afternoon but sent the case back to US district judge Brian Murphy in Boston.

Murphy said the supreme court order required him to deny their bid, saying their claims that deportation was being used as a form of punishment were “substantially similar” to the ones he had ruled on previously.

The order was the latest round in the fight over the legality of the Trump administration’s campaign to deter immigration through high-profile deportations to countries where migrants say they face safety concerns, and which has already gone from lower courts to the supreme court twice.

The eight men awaiting deportation are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan. All have 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.

A lawyer for the men have said they could “face perilous conditions” upon arriving in the country. South Sudan is enmeshed in civil war, and the US government advises no one should travel there before making their own funeral arrangements.

The administration has been trying to deport the immigrants for weeks. The government flew them to the US naval base in Djibouti but couldn’t move them further because Murphy had ruled no immigrant could be sent to a new country without a chance to have a court hearing.

Jennie Pasquarella, a lawyer with the Seattle Clemency Project who represents the migrants, called the ruling disappointing.

“Both courts’ decisions today have denied them their opportunity to have these claims heard and to protect their own lives,” she said. “That is what is so tragic about where we came out.”

Cover photo:  A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Silver Spring, Maryland, earlier this year. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP