Deported immigrants, mostly Asian and Latino, will be in Djibouti for 2 weeks, White House says

A flight with eight immigrants that left Texas this week, reportedly headed for South Sudan, will now remain in the East African country of Djibouti for two weeks to comply with a court order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

During a briefing, Leavitt placed blame on the U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts, following a hearing Wednesday after eight people from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan had been deported to a third country. Lawyers had said the flight was headed for South Sudan, but the Department of Homeland Security says it won’t confirm.

Murphy had said in the hearing the Trump administration was in violation of a previous injunction that prevented people from being sent to countries other than their own without opportunities to voice their fears of torture or persecution, or without proper notice ahead of time.

Murphy ordered that the individuals be provided legal counsel and an opportunity to raise their fears. He also ordered the deportees to be given at least 15 days to reopen immigration proceedings and challenge their deportation in the event the government still aims to send them to a third country.

Leavitt said Murphy’s order was an attempt to “bring these monsters back to our country.”

“Now Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world and putting the agents’ lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals and rapists,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt, who stated the names and criminal records of the eight people who are on the flight, called Murphy’s order a “massive judicial overreach.”

“He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd,” she said.

Murphy had relayed the sequence of events leading to the deportations, saying the immigrants were notified of their destination “sometime in the evening” Monday, outside business hours. He added that they left the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility en route to a nearby airport the next morning at 9:35 CT.

Without sufficient time to consult an attorney or family members, the judge said, it was impossible for the immigrants to challenge their deportations to a third country.

“The department’s actions,” Murphy said, “are unquestionably violative of this court’s order.”