US deports two Asian migrants to South Sudan, lawyers say

The United States expelled about ten migrants to South Sudan on Tuesday, May 20, including two Vietnamese and two Burmese nationals, lawyers representing some of these people said, accusing the Trump administration of having violated a court order.

In court documents filed Tuesday, the lawyers say that "NM," a Myanmar national in ICE custody, was notified Monday night of his upcoming deportation to South Sudan, one of the poorest sub-Saharan African countries. Representatives for "NM" learned "from a detention officer via email" Tuesday that he had been "deported that morning to South Sudan." Other lawyers were formally notified that another migrant, "TTP," from Vietnam, "appears to have suffered the same fate as 'NM ' ." They also received information that "there were likely at least 10 other plaintiffs on the plane to South Sudan."

The lawyers also denounce the fact that, according to them, the US government "failed to comply" with an April court order, by not providing "the opportunity to file a request for protection on the basis of the United Nations Convention against Torture." In a case of deportation to Libya, a federal judge had in fact ordered in April that any deportation to a third country must be preceded by the possibility of requesting such protection. They now ask the judge to order the administration "not" to deport and if necessary to order the immediate return of "NM", "TTP" and the other plaintiffs in the same situation.

Contacted by AFP, ICE did not immediately respond.

In early April, the Trump administration decided to ban all South Sudanese nationals from entering the United States, justifying this by saying that the African state was refusing to accept back its citizens subject to deportation orders. Donald Trump has made the fight against illegal immigration a top priority, referring to an "invasion" of the United States by "criminals from abroad ." The Republican notably invoked a 1798 law to justify the expulsion in February of some 250 people to El Salvador, the vast majority of them Venezuelans accused of belonging to a gang. But several courts, as well as the Supreme Court, have temporarily blocked his use of this law.