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XPost: sac.politics

The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport
the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military
base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost
none of them have ties.

Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea,
Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.

The supreme court�s order on Thursday came after the court�s
conservative majority last month decided that immigration officials
can quickly deport people to countries to which they have no
connection. That order paused a district judge�s earlier ruling
that immigrants being sent to third countries must first be given
an opportunity to prove they would face torture, persecution or
death if they were sent there.

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the eight men and executive director
of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the eight men
could �face perilous conditions, and potentially immediate
detention, upon arrival�.

Two liberal justices dissented � Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown
Jackson � by saying the ruling gives the government special
treatment. �What the government wants to do, concretely, is send
the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States
from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the
local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will
face torture or death,� Sotomayor wrote.

�Today�s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must
follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on
speed dial,� she added.

The Trump administration has been seeking deals with various
countries to accept deportees that the US government cannot quickly
send back to their homelands.

The eight men awaiting deportation to South Sudan have all been
convicted of serious crimes, which the Trump administration has
emphasized in justifying their banishment. Many had either finished
or were close to finishing serving sentences, and had �orders of
removal� directing them to leave the US.

Some, like Tuan Thanh Phan � who came to the United States from
Vietnam as a child and was convicted of killing someone in a gang
altercation when he was 18 � had already planned to return to his
home country after serving his sentence.

Instead, the US government first told these men that they would be
deported to South Africa, and they were asked to sign documents
acknowledging their deportation. They refused, and their case came
before judge Brian E Murphy of the district of Massachusetts, who
ruled that the government must provide �written notice� to any
immigrant facing deportation to a third country, and give them an
opportunity to voice a �reasonable fear� of torture.

The men were told instead that they were being deported to South
Sudan. The government did not provide Murphy with immediate
information about where the men were, and where they were being
sent. Eventually, their flight landed in Camp Lemonnier, an
American military base in Djibouti.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents worked 12-hour
shifts guarding the men. In a sworn court declaration, an official
described illness among the detainees and government agents,
inadequate medical care, risks of malaria and worry about attacks
from militants in Yemen.

In May, the Trump administration asked the supreme court to
intervene and allow the government to deport the men to South Sudan.

They sought agreements with several countries to house immigrants
if authorities could not quickly send them back to their homelands.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not
immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/us-supreme-court-
south-sudan

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