Updated May 21, 2025 at 2:22 PM EDT
A federal judge on Wednesday said the Trump administration violated his court order to not deport migrants to countries where they have no ties without giving them sufficient due process to contest their removals.
Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts said the Department of Homeland Security's rapid removal of eight migrants abroad went against his April preliminary injunction preventing such deportations. Lawyers for at least one of the men on board say the flight landed in South Sudan; the government hasn't disclosed the destination, saying it's classified.
Murphy left open the possibility of holding the government in contempt for a criminal obstruction in the future.
"The department's actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court's order. To the degree that violation implicates criminal obstruction is a question perhaps resolved for another day," Murphy said during a hearing on Wednesday. "Based on what I have learned, I don't see how anybody could say that these individuals had a meaningful opportunity to object."
At least seven men remained aboard the plane somewhere abroad, as the court hearing in Boston proceeded on Wednesday, with the federal judge grappling with their fate.
The Trump administration earlier doubled down on its decision to send migrants to countries that aren't their own following a legal challenge. It has aimed to use third-country destinations to remove individuals that cannot be sent back to their home countries for a variety of reasons.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons told reporters earlier on Wednesday that the people on the flight out of the U.S. had been convicted of crimes in the United States and that ICE was not able to return them to their home countries.
"We found a nation who was willing to take custody of these vicious illegal aliens," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, about the Asian men on the flight. "Now, a local judge in Massachusetts is trying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters who present a clear and present threat to the safety of the American people and American victims."
Murphy's order came after immigration lawyers filed an emergency motion on Tuesday, saying their Vietnamese client was given little notice before being put on a plane to South Sudan, one of the world's poorest and most politically unstable countries.
Lawyer says client "has been disappeared"
Jonathan Ryan, a lawyer with the legal nonprofit Advokato, told NPR that what is striking is the complete lack of information the group is working with. Ryan said he does not know the full name or criminal background of his client, who he believes was sent to South Sudan, and simply knows him as "N.M."
They spoke briefly on May 16, but N.M. does not speak English. Ryan began looking for an interpreter, but by the next day, was informed his client had been moved to another facility, further away. In a second phone call, despite background noise and his client's broken English, he was able to discern that his client had been given paperwork, which he'd refused to sign.
By Monday afternoon, Ryan was perplexed when he received an email from ICE saying his client was being sent to South Africa. Shortly thereafter he received another notification from ICE: his client was being sent to South Sudan.
"No meaningful opportunity at all was provided to him to express a fear of being sent to South Sudan," Ryan said. "And let's be honest, it's quite possible that my client has never heard of South Sudan."
Still, because he has been unable to contact him, Ryan is unclear about N.M.'s actual location.
"Let's be clear: my client has been disappeared. I do not know where he is. The federal judge does not know where he is," Ryan said.
Government officials in a late-Tuesday hearing said that ultimately N.M. was being sent to Burma, even after being notified he was being sent to two other countries first.
But Ryan is skeptical of those claims.
"I want to speak with my client. I want him to tell me that he is in Burma," Ryan said. "Because I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, he's sitting in South Sudan with a guard potentially of the United States, potentially of South Sudan, hovering over him, telling him to tell me that he is in Burma. We simply don't know what's happening."
"Impossible" to have due process
The plane had landed abroad on Wednesday, the judge said, with at least seven people still on board.
Government lawyers at Wednesday's court hearing said people sent on the flight could have expressed fear of being sent to another country before they were loaded on the plane, but didn't.
"We believe the individuals had an opportunity" to protest their deportations, said Elianis Perez, an immigration lawyer at the Justice Department. "But I think any misunderstanding may have had to do with the fact that the court's preliminary injunction wasn't specific enough."
Murphy, the federal judge, said the situation of the people sent on the plane shows that it's "impossible" that they had a meaningful opportunity to object to their deportations, since they only had a few hours late at night to contest their removal and weren't able to consult with their attorneys.
The government "believe they complied with my order because they don't know of any of these people yelling to any of their jailers that they were afraid to go to South Sudan. That is plainly insufficient," Murphy said during Wednesday's hearing.
He said he would clarify his initial preliminary injunction to define how much notice is enough, adding that 24 hours' notice before removal is "plainly insufficient"; the men in this case only got 17 hours of notice, he said. The plaintiffs' lawyers argued that 30 days was enough notice, while the Justice Department maintains 24 hours is sufficient.
Murphy had earlier ordered the Department of Homeland Security to keep custody of migrants sent to South Sudan, or any third country, until he can verify they received proper due process.
Lawyers for the men asked that they be brought back to the U.S., but Drew Ensign, a Department of Justice attorney, asked that DHS officials be allowed to interview them about their fear of persecution of being sent to another country while they remain in U.S. custody abroad.
South Sudan pushes back against being a third country
McLaughlin told reporters that it was possible South Sudan was not the final destination for the eight men on the flight. The department referred questions about third-country negotiations to the State Department and doubled down on saying they are adhering to court orders.
Loading...
The State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about where a recent plane full of migrants was sent, and what their ultimate destination was.
South Sudan's police spokesman told NPR the country will not accept migrants deported from the United States unless they are South Sudanese nationals.
The spokesman denied any arrival of flights of deportees from the U.S. by Wednesday evening local time. He said any non-South Sudanese migrants arriving in the country would be re-deported to their correct country of origin.
The government spokesman also denied there's any deal with the U.S to accept deportees.
South Sudan is not the first country to voice an opposition to being a so-called third country. Earlier this month, Libyan officials also rejected reports that they would take in deportees from the U.S. if they were not Libyan nationals.
Other countries such as El Salvador and Mexico have served as these third country destinations for migrants who cannot be sent back to their home countries, as the U.S. seeks more destinations for people it wants to deport from the U.S.
If you have immigration tips you can contact our tip line, on Whatsapp and Signal: 202-713-6697 or reporters Jasmine Garsd: jgarsd@npr.org and Ximena Bustillo xbustillo@npr.org
NPR's Adrian Florido, Tovia Smith and Emmanuel Igunza contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 NPR
