ICE Breaches Court Ruling, Deports Two Immigrants to South Sudan

(MENAFN) Two immigrants detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas have been deported to South Sudan, despite a federal court ruling preventing such actions, their legal representatives reported Tuesday.

The men, originally from Myanmar and Vietnam, were awaiting immigration hearings when they unexpectedly learned of their deportation to the conflict-ridden nation after receiving a sudden notice late Monday. By Tuesday morning, their attorneys confirmed that the men were already en route to South Sudan alongside as many as 10 other deportees.

Jacqueline Brown, one of the detainees' lawyers, described her discovery: "Today, I checked the online ICE detainee locator and saw that (my client) was no longer in the ICE detainee locator," she stated in a court filing. "I then emailed the Port Isabel Detention Center Law Visit email address to confirm whether N.M. was located at the facility...a Port Isabel Detention Center Detention Officer responded that (he) had been removed 'this morning.' I emailed to ask to which country (he) was removed, and the officer responded...'South Sudan.'"

The deportation is in direct violation of an emergency motion issued by a federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts, which prohibited the Trump administration from sending immigrants to "third-party countries" like South Sudan without adequate notice or an opportunity to challenge the potential for torture in those nations.

This ruling stemmed from another case in which deportees were being sent to the "third-party" country of Libya, a country facing its own humanitarian crisis and similar human rights issues. The Department of Homeland Security has yet to respond to the allegations regarding the unlawful removal of these immigrants.

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