A federal judge is weighing a possible criminal contempt charge against Trump administration officials after immigration lawyers said the government illegally deported migrants from Vietnam and Myanmar to South Sudan, in direct violation of a court order.
In an emergency filing Tuesday, attorneys representing the migrants told U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy that nearly a dozen people were flown from a Texas detention center to South Sudan, a country none of them are from. They say the removals happened without any legal hearing, despite an existing court order that bans such deportations unless migrants are first given a chance to raise concerns about potential torture or persecution.
“This could constitute criminal contempt,” Judge Murphy told a Justice Department attorney during a hastily scheduled virtual hearing. He added that he was considering ordering the plane to return.
One of the deported migrants, referred to in court filings as NM, is from Myanmar and has “limited English proficiency.” His lawyer received an email from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, stating that NM would be deported to South Sudan. NM refused to sign the removal notice, which was written only in English—another apparent violation of court rules.
By Tuesday morning, NM was already gone—reportedly aboard the flight to South Sudan.
The spouse of another detainee, a Vietnamese national held in the same Texas facility, contacted lawyers and said her husband and 10 others were deported as well.
Attorneys filed an urgent motion asking the judge to step in and stop any further removals.
“Return is imminently reasonable – and necessary – in such a situation, as the Supreme Court recognized in recent weeks,” they wrote, citing the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man recently deported to El Salvador by mistake.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comment.
South Sudan, the destination in question, is one of the most unstable countries in the world. The U.S. State Department warns Americans not to travel there due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” Civil war in the country has killed hundreds of thousands since its independence in 2011. None of the deported migrants have ties to the region.
The legal team is demanding that the migrants be returned immediately and that the court hold the administration accountable for violating the law.
