Judge briefly pauses Trump administration's July 4 bid to deport 8 men to South Sudan

Politico

4 hours ago

But Moss said it appeared the men had served their criminal sentences, so the U.S. government shouldn't be trying to inflict punishment on them at this point. That is the central claim in the suit filed Thursday night: that deporting the eight to South Sudan amounts to additional punishment.
Moss said he wasn't reaching any legal conclusions about that, but he said he had 'grave concerns about some of the issues' raised by lawyers for the men.
'It's almost self-evident that the United States government cannot take human beings and send them to circumstances where their physical well being is at risk simply to punish them or to send a signal to others,' Moss said.
Moss also noted that the State Department has a public 'do not travel' warning for South Sudan. 'It does appear that placing people in South Sudan does pose or could pose significant risk to their safety,' he said.
However, the judge ultimately concluded that the Supreme Court's recent actions impacting the men in the litigation underway in Boston meant their claims should be heard there and not in the Washington court.
'I do believe that the cases should be handled in a single case instead of multiple cases around the country,' Moss said.
The eight men have been marooned in Djibouti since May, when a federal judge in Boston — U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy — halted their deportation to South Sudan, concluding that the move violated an order he'd issued requiring advance notice and a 'meaningful' chance to object before people being deported from the U.S. are sent to countries where they have no previous ties. Murphy also halted an earlier attempt to send the men to Libya.
They have been living in a shipping container for nearly six weeks waiting for resolution from the courts, though Murphy allowed the administration to relocate them to any other U.S. facility — or back to the mainland — so long as they remained in American custody.
While the men and several U.S. immigration officers guarding them remained at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the Trump administration also fought a court battle against Murphy's orders.
Last week, the Supreme Court blocked Murphy's broad, nationwide order requiring certain steps before third-country deportations. And on Thursday, the justices voided separate orders the Biden appointee issued regarding the eight men.
However, in neither instance did the high court's majority explain its concern about Murphy's original order, leaving lawyers to speculate about whether the justices disagreed with his conclusions about the due process deportees are entitled to, whether the justices objected to the nationwide scope of his order or whether they harbored some other concern.
During the hearings Friday, Moss repeatedly lamented the uncertainty left by the Supreme Court's rulings on the issue and said the public was left to 'read the tea leaves' in the high court's decisions.
'I don't know what to make of what the Supreme Court did because that is one of the downsides of the emergency docket,' the judge said. 'We just don't know which of those arguments the Supreme Court found convincing in ordering the relief it ordered.'