Migrants deported from U.S. to South Sudan held in Djibouti, in a U.S. army base

Anwen Hughes, an legal professional with Human Rights First and Trina Realmuto, Executive Director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, communicate with reporters exterior the federal courthouse, after a decide dominated that the Trump administration violated his courtroom order by making an attempt to deport migrants to South Sudan, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 21, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A gaggle of migrants deported from the United States towards conflict-torn South Sudan will probably be held for now in Djibouti after a courtroom ruling, the Trump administration lamented on Thursday (May 22, 2025).

The U.S. authorities claims it expelled the eight migrants from a spread of countries as a result of their previous convictions for violent crimes.

The migrants left the United States on a flight on Tuesday certain for South Sudan as a substitute of their nations of origin, after Washington didn’t receive approval from their respective governments to take them again.

They are at the moment detained by the Department of Homeland Security in Djibouti, the place there’s a main U.S. army base.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston dominated on Wednesday night that the Trump administration had violated certainly one of his earlier orders, calling the timeframe given for the migrants to contest their expulsions to South Sudan “plainly inadequate.”

South Sudan, an impoverished nation which has lengthy grappled with insecurity and political instability, has an advisory towards journey from the U.S. State Department.

In his ruling, Murphy stated that migrants needed to obtain higher discover and at the least ten days to attraction the choice, as required by the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

He additionally dominated that six of the migrants have been entitled to invoke, with assistance from a lawyer, their “concern” of torture or ill-treatment within the third nation.

And if the Department of Homeland Security deemed the concern unfounded, it nonetheless wanted to grant at the least 15 days to attraction the expulsion process.

Mr. Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Thursday to decry Murphy’s order, saying he “has ordered that EIGHT of probably the most violent criminals on Earth curtail their journey to South Sudan, and as a substitute stay in Djibouti.”

“He wouldn’t enable these monsters to proceed to their ultimate vacation spot,” he continued, claiming that the courts are “completely uncontrolled.”

The White House recognized the eight males as two residents of Myanmar, two Cubans, a Vietnamese man, a Laotian, a Mexican and a South Sudanese citizen.

While the federal government stated these scheduled for expulsion had ample warning, legal professionals for the Vietnamese nationwide and one citizen of Myanmar stated in courtroom filings that their purchasers solely discovered the night time earlier than or on Tuesday, when the flight left.

For their half, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security stated Wednesday that South Sudan was not the “ultimate vacation spot” for the migrants.