Trump administration deported Asian immigrants to South Sudan

US media are reporting that President Donald Trump’s administration has deported at least two immigrants to South Sudan as part of its policy of cracking down on illegal immigration. Media reports say the measure could go against a court decision forbidding deportations of foreign nationals to third countries where they could face danger.

The political news website Politico on Tuesday quoted lawyers as saying that two men from Myanmar and Vietnam had been sent to the politically unstable African country.

In April, a judge at the federal district court in Massachusetts ordered the Trump administration not to send foreign nationals to countries other than their own without notice and a chance to raise concerns.

On Tuesday, the judge ordered the Trump administration to maintain custody of the migrants on the deportation flight to South Sudan. He warned that officials involved in the deportations could be held in criminal contempt.

In March, the US State Department called on Americans not to travel to South Sudan, where armed clashes are continuing.

The Trump administration has deported immigrants by invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act that allows the president to detain or deport the citizens of an enemy nation without undergoing normal court procedures.

In their filing on Tuesday, the group of immigration lawyers said the government appeared to have violated that order in the case of two migrants from Myanmar and Vietnam.

Emails submitted by the lawyers show that an attorney for the man from Myanmar was sent a notice on Monday indicating that his client had been told he would be deported to South Africa. The attorney was then sent another email, indicating that his client was actually facing deportation to South Sudan, the emails show.

On Tuesday morning, another lawyer helping the man from Myanmar emailed the immigration detention center in Los Fresnos, Texas, where he was being held, asking about his whereabouts. She was told her client had been deported in the morning. When she asked where, she received an email saying, “South Sudan.”

The lawyers said they also received an email from a woman who said she believed her husband, a man from Vietnam, had been deported to South Sudan, alongside other migrant detainees held at the Los Fresnos detention facility.

Thank you for reading! Visit us anytime at Myanmar.com for more insights and updates about Myanmar