USA

The Trump administration said it deported a group of eight men convicted of serious crimes in the United States to the African country in South Sudan conflict, after a Legal saga that had kept the deportees trapped in a Military Base in Djibouti For weeks.

The secretary of the National Security Department, Tricia McLaughlin said that the deportation flight that transported the deportees landed in South Sudan just before midnight on Friday. A photo provided by the department showed those deported, with chained hands and feet, sitting inside a plane, protected by members of the US service.

Deportations to South Sudan, a country full of armed conflicts and political instability that the United States government warns Americans who do not visit, mark a new unprecedented border in the offensive throughout the government of President Trump against illegal immigration.

None of the deportees are from South Sudan. They come from Cuba, Mexico, Laos, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, and were ordered deported by the United States after being convicted of crimes, including murder, homicide, sexual assault, lascivious acts with a child and robbery.

The legal battle of high profile on the destiny of men culminated when two federal judges denied on Friday a final attempt by the defenders of immigration rights to stop deportations, saying that their hands were tied by recent orders of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Deportations mean a great political victory for the Trump administration, which has tried to convince countries around the world, regardless of their human rights history, to accept deportees who are not their citizens, including those convicted of serious crimes.

“A district judge cannot dictate the national security and foreign policy of the United States of America,” said McLaughlin, DHS spokesman. “This Independence Day marks another victory for the security of the American people.”

Deportations have also alarmed human rights defenders, who fear that men can face jail time, torture or other damage in South Sudan. They have argued that deportations to South Sudan are designed to punish men for their crimes, although they have already served criminal sentences in the United States.

“The United States Department of State warns Americans against all trips to South Sudan, but deported these men there without due process,” said Trina Realmuto, lawyer of the National Alliance of Immigration litigation, who tried to stop deportations. “They are not mistaken about it, these deportations were punitive and unconstitutional.”

It is not clear exactly how the deportees will be treated in South Sudan. A lawyer from the Department of Justice told a federal judge on Friday that Sudan from the South informed the United States to offer men a temporary immigration status, but the lawyer could not confirm whether they would be detained. The Trump administration has said in judicial presentations that South Sudan officials have guaranteed that deportees will not face torture.

Male deportation was possible thanks to an order from the Supreme Court earlier this week. At the request of the Trump Administration, the Supreme Court clarified on Thursday the scope of an earlier order that had issued to stop a ruling from the lower court that prohibits deportations to external countries without a degree of due process and notification.

That ruling of the lower court of the United States District Judge, Brian Murphy, in Massachusetts, had required the Trump administration to notify those detained with sufficient notice and the opportunity to be interviewed by an United States asylum officer before any deportation to a country where they did not come. That case frustrated several deportation efforts, including a plan to send detainees to Libya.

When he learned about the administration plan to deport the eight men to South Sudan in May, Murphy blocked that effort, ordering the United States to retain the custody of the detainees and offer them the opportunity to dispute their deportation. The administration transferred the detainees to the Naval Base of the Lemonnier camp in Djibouti, where American officials described dangerous conditionsincluding concerns about malaria, rocket attacks, inappropriate security protocols and triple digits outdoor temperatures.

But the Supreme Court last month He suspended April Murphy’s decision. And on Thursday, he said that Murphy could no longer require the government to allow detainees in Djibouti to dispute their deportation, since the order underlies that requirement.

Hours later, the defenders of the rights of immigrants asked a different federal judge, Randolph Moss in Washington, DC, to stop deportations to South Sudan. He did it on Friday, but only briefly before saying that the application should be handled by Murphy.

Moss expressed concern about the risks for the “physical security” of men and said that the United States government should not be in the business of inflicting “pain and suffering” to people who have already served their sentence, even for a “terrible crime.” But he said his hands were tied, telling the defenders they needed to ask Murphy with any intervention.

Later, on Friday, Murphy denied the request of the defenders, saying that the orders of the Supreme Court were “binding.”

• Immigration
• Deportation
• South Sudan