EXCLUSIVE The 'bad hombre' migrants Trump is deporting to South Sudan revealed as judge calls emergency hearing
It came as a federal judge ruled that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of the migrants in case he orders their removals were unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling late Tuesday after an emergency hearing.
Attorneys for the immigrants said the Trump administration appeared to have begun deporting people from Burma and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.
The Daily Mail can now reveal that the migrants include at least five murderers and a pedophile.
One is a citizen of south Sudan and others are from Cuba, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos.
They include Thongxay Nilakout, from Burma, who was convicted of murder after the high-profile 1994 killing of Gisela Pfleger, a German tourist in California.
He was jailed for life in California in 1996 and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in January this year before being put on a plane to South Sudan.
A U.S. official described Nilakout and the others as 'bad hombres.'
They also included Nyo Myint, a citizen of Burma.
He was convicted of first-degree sexual assault involving a victim mentally and physically incapable of resisting, and sentenced to 12 years confinement.
He was arrested by ICE on February 19, 2025.
Judge Murphy, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said the U.S. government must 'maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.'
While the judge left the details to the government's discretion, he said he expects the migrants "will be treated humanely."
At the emergency hearing attorneys for the migrants told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent up to a dozen people from several countries to Africa.
They argue that violates a court order saying people must get a 'meaningful opportunity' to argue that sending them to a country outside their homeland would threaten their safety.
The apparent removal of one man from Burma was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents.
He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his attorneys learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, the lawyers said.
A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.
The migrants' attorneys asked Murphy for an emergency court order to prevent the deportations.
The judge previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would 'clearly' violate his ruling.
He ordered U.S. officials from the Trump administration to appear at another emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions about the deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries.
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