Judge clears way for U.S. to deport eight men to South Sudan

A federal judge denied a last-ditch bid for legal protection from eight men seeking to stave off deportation to South Sudan, saying the Supreme Court had given the final word on the matter two days earlier.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy denied an emergency motion by the men to prevent the deportations to the war-torn African nation scheduled for later Friday evening. They are currently housed in a shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti.

Murphy's decision came after a frenzied day in court by attorneys for the eight men, who initially filed an emergency petition in Washington, D.C., before a federal judge there sent the case back to Massachusetts. The July 4 drama came a day after the Supreme Court lifted an order by Murphythat had blocked the deportation.

"This Court interprets these Supreme Court orders as binding on this new petition," Murphy said in a brief order, "as Petitioners are now raising substantially similar claims, and therefore Petitioners motion is denied."

The order came just hours after Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss concluded — following a pair of hearings held by video conference on the July Fourth holiday — that he had to punt the case to back to Murphy. Moss seemed unsure whether it was proper for him to intercede on behalf of the eight men, given the case's long history in Massachusetts and the recent Supreme Court decisions.

Moss, an Obama appointee, seemed torn over the issue, recognizing that his decision could condemn the men to deportation to a nation the State Department warns is dangerous for anyone but specialized personnel. But he said the Supreme Court’s refusal to halt the deportations Thursday — and long-running proceedings taking place in Massachusetts — counseled against his involvement.

Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppan, representing the Trump administration, said the on-again-off-again orders from courts were complicating the already-difficult process of deporting individuals whose home countries refuse to take them back. Of the eight men, only one is from South Sudan.

“It’s going to make foreign countries less likely to engage to accept these transfers,” Mooppan said.

Mooppan told Moss that the flight from Djibouti to South Sudan is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern and that the administration would appeal to a federal appeals court or the Supreme Court, if necessary, to carry it out.

After the initial legal fight broke out in May, the Trump administration called a press conference to display photos of the men and publicize the fact that they had all been convicted of serious crimes.

But Moss said it appeared the men had served their criminal sentences, so the U.S. government shouldn’t be trying to inflict additional punishment on them by sending them to a nation where they could face a serious threat of harm or persecution.

“It’s almost self-evident that the United States government cannot take human beings and send them to circumstances where their physical well being is at risk simply to punish them or to send a signal to others,” Moss said.

However, the judge ultimately concluded that the Supreme Court’s recent actions impacting the men in the litigation underway in Boston meant their claims should be heard there and not in the Washington court.

“I do believe that the cases should be handled in a single case instead of multiple cases around the country,” Moss said.

The eight men have been marooned in Djibouti since May, when Murphy halted their deportation to South Sudan, concluding that the move violated an order he’d issued requiring advance notice and a “meaningful” chance to object before people being deported from the U.S. are sent to countries where they have no previous ties. Murphy also halted an earlier attempt to send the men to Libya.

They have been living in a shipping container for nearly six weeks waiting for resolution from the courts, though Murphy allowed the administration to relocate them to any other U.S. facility — or back to the mainland — so long as they remained in American custody.

While the men and several U.S. immigration officers guarding them remained at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the Trump administration also fought a court battle against Murphy’s orders.

Last week, the Supreme Court blocked Murphy’s broad, nationwide order requiring certain steps before third-country deportations. And on Thursday, the justices voided separate orders the Biden appointee issued regarding the eight men.

However, in neither instance did the high court’s majority explain its concern about Murphy’s original order, leaving lawyers to speculate about whether the justices disagreed with his conclusions about the due process deportees are entitled to, whether the justices objected to the nationwide scope of his order or whether they harbored some other concern.

During the hearings Friday, Moss repeatedly lamented the uncertainty left by the Supreme Court’s rulings on the issue and said the public was left to “read the tea leaves” in the high court’s decisions.

“I don’t know what to make of what the Supreme Court did because that is one of the downsides of the emergency docket,” the judge said. “We just don’t know which of those arguments the Supreme Court found convincing in ordering the relief it ordered.”