The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with plans to deport eight convicted criminals to South Sudan.
The men, who were initially slated to arrive in South Sudan in May, were detoured instead to the East African nation of Djibouti, where they were detained at Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. military base.
Most of the men, who have all been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, have never stepped foot in South Sudan, per The New York Times. Moreover, just one is from South Sudan according to the outlet. The others hailed from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba, and Myanmar before coming to the U.S.
“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,” liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented the decision, wrote Thursday.
She was joined by another one of the court’s liberal members, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her dissent as well.
The eight men’s deportation to Sudan was initially blocked by a nationwide order from Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden.
Murphy had ruled that the government must allow migrants to argue their case against being deported to a country that is not their home. He said that migrants should be allowed a “meaningful opportunity” to show if they are at threat of torture, persecution, or death if sent to a “third country” the administration made deals with to receive immigrants.
SCOTUS’ conservative majority instead found that immigration officials can deport migrants to third countries, or a nation that is not their country of origin or that they have no connection to, quickly and applied it to the eight men’s cases.
Both the U.S. and South Sudan have not indicated what will happen to the eight men upon their arrival. However, in recent filings at the Supreme Court, the Trump administration has said that it was assured by South Sudan, which is at risk of devolving into another civil war amidst escalating political tensions, that the men “will not be subject to torture” under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, per NBC News.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “These sickos will be in South Sudan by Independence Day.”
“A win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people. We thank our brave ICE law enforcement for their sacrifice to defend our freedoms.”
Attorneys for the eight men have maintained that they could face “imprisonment, torture, and even death” if sent to South Sudan, per the Associated Press.
“We know they’ll face perilous conditions, and potentially immediate detention, upon arrival,” Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said Thursday, per AP.
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