Eight men deported from US arrive in war-torn South Sudan
The immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan arrived in South Sudan on Friday after a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to relocate them in a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the US.
Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the US.
'This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,' said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement announcing the men's arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war.
The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the transfer of the men who had been put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan.
That meant that the South Sudan transfer could be completed after the flight was detoured to a base in Djibouti, where they men were held in a converted shipping container.
The flight was detoured after a federal judge found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow the men a chance to challenge the removal.
The court's conservative majority had ruled in June that immigration officials could quickly deport people to third countries.
The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger.
A flurry of court hearings on Independence Day resulted a temporary hold on the deportations while a judge evaluated a last-ditch appeal by the men's before the judge decided he was powerless to halt their removals and that the person best positioned to rule on the request was a Boston judge whose rulings led to the initial halt of the administration's effort to begin deportations to South Sudan.
By Friday evening, that judge had issued a brief ruling concluding the Supreme Court had tied his hands.
The men had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Judge orders mental evaluation for Venezuelan man convicted of killing Laken Riley
A judge has ordered a mental evaluation of the Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. A judge in November found Jose Ibarra guilty of murder and other crimes in Riley's February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ibarra is seeking a new trial, and his lawyers asked the judge to order a mental evaluation as part of that process. Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard's order for a mental evaluation was sent to the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Tuesday, according to a letter filed with the court. Riley's killing became part of the national debate about immigration during last year's presidential campaign. Ibarra had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay while he pursued his immigration case, federal immigration authorities said after his arrest. President Donald Trump in January signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta. In a court filing last month, Ibarra's post-conviction attorneys, James Luttrell and David Douds, said they believe Ibarra suffers from 'congenital deficiency' that could make him 'incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial." Ibarra 'lacks the mental capacity" to understand the proceedings, and his attorney wrote that he believes that was the case at the time of the killing and at the time of trial. Ibarra, 27, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning it was up to Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard alone to hear and decide the case. 'A criminal defendant must personally and intelligently participate in the waiver of the constitutional right to a trial by jury,' Luttrell and Douds wrote, noting that Ibarra's trial attorney did not ask for a competency evaluation. Prosecutor Sheila Ross wrote in a court filing responding to the request that there were 'no challenges or concerns' about Ibarra's competency prior to trial and that 'there is nothing in the trial record that would suggest that Defendant was not competent during his trial.' But she wrote that she does not oppose the request for a competency evaluation. Haggard last week filed an order asking the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to evaluate Ibarra with the aid of a Spanish-language interpreter. He asked for findings on whether Ibarra was capable of understanding the pretrial proceedings involving the waiver of his right to a jury trial, as well as the trial itself, and whether he was capable of assisting his attorney to prepare his defense. He also wants to know whether Ibarra understands the post-conviction proceedings and can aid in preparing his defense. Ibarra was convicted on Nov. 20 and his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial on Dec. 2. Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of a conviction becoming final, which is the date of sentencing or the denial of a motion for a new trial, whichever is later. Therefore, the filing of a motion for a new trial effectively extends the deadline to file an appeal.
NBC News
38 minutes ago
- NBC News
With their megabill signed into law, Republicans seek to buck midterm history: From the Politics Desk
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team's latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today's edition, Steve Kornacki dives into recent midterm history to show what Republicans are up against as they seek to maintain their House majority next year. Plus, Bridget Bowman explores why so many independents are running for statewide office. — Adam Wollner With their megabill signed into law, Republicans seek to buck midterm history As it made its way through Congress, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" received consistently low marks from the public. This has fed Democratic optimism as the 2026 midterm playing field begins to take shape. Previous unpopular legislative pushes from presidents are being invoked, from Bill Clinton's 1993 tax hike to Barack Obama's health-care overhaul in 2010 to the Donald Trump-led GOP's unsuccessful Obamacare repeal attempt in 2017. All of these efforts preceded dire midterm losses by the party that controlled the White House, an outcome Democrats believe is on the table now. Republicans, meanwhile, face the task of either reversing voters' views of the Trump megabill or shifting the focus away from it and onto other issues where they are better positioned politically. And they must do this with the weight of midterm history stacked against them. This is particularly stark when it comes to the House, where Republicans have just 220 seats. That means that a net loss of just three would cost them their majority next year. And here's how the president's party has fared over the last 15 midterms: Note that in only two cases did the White House party manage to pick up House seats. And both come with a ready explanation. When Clinton's Democrats gained five seats in 1998, it coincided with the GOP's wildly unpopular impeachment effort, which fomented a backlash and drove up the president's approval rating (68% in the exit poll). And the Republicans' gain of eight seats in 2002 came just a year after 9/11, when public support for President George W. Bush remained unusually strong and deep. There were also minimal losses suffered by Republicans in 1986 and 1990, although those can be chalked up in large part to how diminished the House GOP ranks already were heading into those midterms. Simply put, there just weren't that many seats left for Republicans to lose in those years. So, is there anything here Trump's GOP can take solace from now? Ironically, it's the most recent entry on the list. In 2022, Joe Biden's approval rating was barely at 40%, a level that has often correlated with heavy midterm losses. And Biden and his party were also saddled with an unpopular legislative achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act. But despite forecasts of a bloodbath, Democrats lost only a net of nine House seats, coming far closer to retaining their majority than anyone had expected. It's a matter of debate what exactly caused this, but the bottom line is that a sizable number of voters with negative views of Biden and his agenda nonetheless voted for Democratic candidates. Some combination of negative views of Trump, the Republican Party and individual Republican candidates likely played a role. Trump's current approval rating is at 46.4%, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. That's four points better than Biden's was on Election Day 2022 and also three points above where Trump himself was during his first midterm in 2018, when his party lost 41 House seats. Historically speaking, though, it's still a perilous place for an incumbent to be. While Republicans certainly hope that Trump can maintain and even improve on his current standing, their bigger hope may lie in our latest NBC News Decision Desk poll, which found that 57% of Americans have a negative view of the Democratic Party. If they can push that number even higher, it could offer them their best — and maybe only — chance at defying midterm history. Dan Osborn is the latest independent to launch a statewide run By Bridget Bowman Dan Osborn, a mechanic and Navy veteran, is launching another run for Senate in Nebraska, becoming the latest candidate to run for statewide office who is looking to capitalize on voters' disdain for both parties. 'I want to show people that we can get back to working with a government that's by and for the people and not for the 1% and the corporations,' Osborn said in an interview with NBC News ahead of his launch on Tuesday. Republicans have already signaled they plan to replicate the playbook they used against Osborn last year and paint him as a Democrat masquerading as an independent. Osborn made a surprisingly competitive run against GOP Sen. Deb Fischer last year, losing by 7 points as Trump carried Nebraska by 20 points. But Osborn contends he is a 'lifelong independent,' not having registered to vote with either party and describing himself as fiscally conservative and more socially liberal. He could have a slightly easier time campaigning without a party label than other independent Senate candidates running in deeply Republican states who have clearer, and recent, ties to the Democratic Party. In Mississippi, Ty Pinkins left the Democratic Party to challenge GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as an independent in 2026. But he has run for office multiple times as a Democrat, including an unsuccessful race last year against GOP Sen. Roger Wicker. In Idaho, former state Rep. Todd Achilles, another Democrat-turned-independent, is running against Republican Senate Jim Risch. And in South Dakota, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Brian Bengs launched an independent bid against GOP Sen. Mike Rounds after losing a 2022 Senate race as a Democrat. This new wave of independent Senate campaigns underscore just how toxic the Democratic brand has become in ruby red states. Bengs, for example, told The New York Times that voters 'ruled out any possibility of supporting me because the letter 'D' was beside my name.' Meanwhile, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat, is running as a third-party candidate for governor of battleground Michigan. But recent history shows other independent candidates have struggled to overcome the partisan bent of their states or compete against the two major parties. The last time voters sent a new independent candidate to the Senate was in 2012, when Maine's Angus King won his first term, and that was after he had served as the state's governor. King and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have easily won re-election since their first campaigns and caucus with Democrats. There are currently no independent governors. Still, these candidates believe they have an opening among voters who have negative views of Republicans and Democrats. As Duggan recently told NBC News, 'Every place I go, the depth of anger at the two parties runs deep.'
Sky News
42 minutes ago
- Sky News
IDF presence in Gaza 'only issue' still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands
Only one issue remains unresolved in the push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Sky sources. Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza. The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas's demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn't unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days. On the issue of humanitarian aid, Sky News understands that a third party that neither Hamas nor Israel has control over will be used in areas from which the IDF withdraws. This means that the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - jointly run by an American organisation and Israel - will not be able to operate anywhere where the IDF is not deployed. It will limit GHF expansion plans. It is believed the United Nations or other recognised humanitarian organisations will adopt a greater role. On the issue of a US guarantee to prevent Israel restarting the war, Sky News understands that a message was passed to Hamas by Dr Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American who has emerged as a key back channel in the negotiations. The message appears to have been enough to convince Hamas that President Trump will prevent Israel from restarting the conflict. However, there is no sense from any of the developments over the course of the past day about what the future of Gaza looks like longer-term. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
