Detainees play outside during a media tour of the Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC), hosted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Harlingen Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), in Los Fresnos, Texas, U.S., June 10, 2024. REUTERS/Veronica Gabriela Cardenas/Pool/File Photo
BOSTON (Reuters) -A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. government violated his court order by attempting to deport migrants to South Sudan, opening another front in a simmering battle between Donald Trump and judges who have imposed checks on the Republican president's hardline immigration policies.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said U.S. officials risked being held in contempt of court for violating a preliminary injunction he issued in April to block the administration from sending deportees to countries other than their own without the opportunity to raise any concerns they had for their safety.
The administration accused Murphy of being a "far-left activist judge" who is trying to protect migrants who are "monsters."
At a hearing in Boston, the judge said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified seven migrants on Monday night that they could be deported to South Sudan, less than 24 hours before they were loaded onto a plane. That was "plainly insufficient" notice, according to the judge, who was appointed by Trump's Democratic predecessor President Joe Biden.
U.S. homeland security officials told a press conference before the hearing that eight men were being deported who are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan, and said they had been convicted of murder, armed robbery and other serious crimes. Because the eighth man was from South Sudan, his deportation was not at issue in the case before Murphy.
Murphy told officials they could be held in contempt, but did not immediately punish anyone. The judge said officials should be on notice that "everybody who is involved in an illegal deportation risks criminal contempt."
"The department's actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court's order," Murphy said.
Murphy's finding was one of the strongest rebukes so far of the Trump's administration since he returnedto office in January. Trump as a candidate for president last year pledged to crack down on illegal immigration. Many of his attempts to step up deportations have been impeded by the courts.
In a statement issued after Murphy's finding on Wednesday, the White House said, "It's another attempt by a far-left activist judge to dictate the foreign policy of the United States - and protect the violent criminal illegal immigrants President Donald J. Trump and his administration have removed from our streets."
Justice Department lawyer Elainis Perez said at the hearing that Murphy's April preliminary injunction did not specifically state how much notice was required. Perez said expedited deportations carried out in less than 24 hours of migrants who do not express safety concerns do not violate rights protected under the U.S. Constitution.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told reporters of the men being deported: "These are the monsters that the district judge is trying to protect."
South Sudan has long been dangerous even for locals. The U.S. State Department advises citizens not to travel there due to violent crime and armed conflict. The United Nations has said the African country's political crisiscould reignite a brutal civil war that ended in 2018.
The dispute had echoes of another case in whichWashington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found that the administration violated his order to pause the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador until he could hear a case challenging the legality of their deportations under a 1798 law historically used only during wartime.
Boasberg also launched a criminal contempt investigation, but an appeals court has temporarily blocked it while the Trump administration challenges his probe.Trump on social media called Boasberg a "Radical Left Lunatic" and a "troublemaker and agitator."
In another case, Greenbelt, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the administration did not adequately explain how it was complying with her order to "facilitate" the return of a Salvadoran man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador despite an earlier court order he not be sent there.
Trump and U.S. officials who he has appointed have accused judges of overstepping their authority and of seeking to thwart his agenda. Trump called for Boasberg's impeachment - a congressional process that could lead to removal from the bench - prompting U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to declare that an appeal, not impeachment, is the appropriate response to an unfavorable court ruling.
MIGRANTS SITTING ON A PLANE
The case before Murphy stems from a legal challenge brought by immigrant advocates to the administration's push to deport migrants with final orders of removal to countries other than their own, including migrants who have protections from being sent to their home countries due to safety concerns.
Murphy sided with the plaintiffs, ruling last month that any migrants being sent to a third country were entitled to due process under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment and must have a "meaningful opportunity" to raise any fears for their safety.
In an emergency hearing on Tuesday after the advocates said they learned migrants were being flown to South Sudan, Murphy ordered the administration not to let the migrants leave the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.
The migrants appeared to still be in U.S. custody. A U.S. official said at a hearing on Wednesday that they were currently sitting on a plane, but did not say where.
Murphy said on Wednesday the government would not necessarily have to bring the migrants back to the United States in order for them to have due process. The judge appeared inclined to let the migrants have interviews about whether they feared for their safety from where they currently are located.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, South Sudan police spokesperson James Mande Enoka said that when the migrants arrived, they would be investigated and then "be again deported to the correct country."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)
