After reports that a deportation flight with eight migrants left Texas for South Sudan this week, a federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration violated a previous order. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts said during the hearing that the Trump administration failed to adhere to his previous injunction preventing individuals from being sent to a country other than their own without giving them an opportunity to raise fears of persecution or torture. It was issued in March. It comes after the Department of Homeland Security confirmed during a press briefing Wednesday morning that eight individuals from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan were deported this week. All had violent criminal convictions. "The department's actions in this question are unquestionably violative of this court's order," Murphy told the court. Government attorneys said that the migrants are still in ICE custody, and that the plane has since landed. They declined to share the location of the plane's final destination. A State Department travel advisory warns Americans not to go to South Sudan "due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict" and notes that in March, because of the situation there, the department "ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees from South Sudan." Murphy, who briefed the court on the sequence of events leading to the deportation after speaking with government attorneys out of public earshot, said that the individuals were notified of their destination "sometime in the evening" on Monday, outside business hours. He added that they left the ICE facility the next morning "at the latest in the 10am hour and at the earliest before 9am." Without sufficient time to consult an attorney or family members, the judge said that it was "impossible" for those individuals to "have a meaningful opportunity to object" to their deportation to a third country. The hearing comes after immigration attorneys told Murphy that at least two of their clients, from Myanmar and Vietnam, were deported Tuesday morning to South Sudan. South Sudan could beheaded for another civil war.A 2018 power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, ended five years of civil war. But earlier this year, violent clashes between the factions have ramped up once again. Earlier this month, Murphy had blocked the Trump administration's attempt to deport individuals from countries including the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos to Libya. Then, Murphy had reaffirmed his injunction on third country deportations in response to an emergency motion from the migrants' lawyers.
