A federal judge in Massachusetts said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security violated a court order this week when it quietly flew eight migrants to a country they do not hail from.
The administration has so far refused to say where the men currently are, but lawyers say they were told they were going to South Sudan.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had issued an order in April barring the government from deporting people to a third-party country — a nation other than the U.S. or their nation of origin — without first giving them a meaningful chance to contest it. The men are originally from countries including Vietnam and Myanmar.
Lawyers for the men said in court documents that they were given just hours before they were deported instead of 15 days as directed by the judge.
“The department’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order,” Murphy said in the hearing, according to several outlets. He left the question of potential consequences for another day.
