Supreme Court Lets Trump Deport 8 Illegal Migrants to South Sudan

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued an unsigned order stating that a handful of illegal immigrant criminals whom the Trump administration sought to deport to South Sudan—and who have been waiting in Djibouti to find out their court-ordered fate—can be deported to South Sudan.

"The May 21 remedial order cannot now be used to enforce an injunction that our stay rendered unenforceable," the Court said, referencing the back and forth that has gone on with this case and the federal judge in Boston. The question before the court was how to handle a circumstance in which they had said previously that the government could deport the men, which was in opposition to a lower court ruling, only to have that lower court refuse to accept the decision and say that its own ruling was still in effect.

Justice Elena Kagan, who had agreed with the minority dissent written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that the men should not be deported, upheld the Thursday decision, saying "a majority of this Court saw things differently, and I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this Court has stayed."

Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed with the majority, saying that while the case before the court involved the government's ask for "clarification" after the district court refused to abide by the Supreme Court's stay of the district court's order, the government, in their view, wasn't really asking for clarification.

"The Government now asks this court to hold that the stay invalidated the remedial order. In substance, of course, the Government's new request for relief has nothing to do with clarification, so this Court has no business considering its merits now," they say.

In May, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from sending eight illegal immigrant criminals to South Sudan. The men hail from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and Mexico, among other nations. None of them is from the African nation to which they are now cleared for deportation.

1. Enrique Arias-Hierro

• Convicted of homicide and armed robbery

• Convicted of false impersonation of an official, kidnapping, and strong-arm robbery

2. Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones

• Convicted of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon

• Convicted of battery and larceny

• Convicted of cocaine possession and trafficking

3. Thongxay Nilakout

• Convicted of first-degree murder and robbery

• Murdered a German tourist in Los Angeles

4. Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez

• Convicted of second-degree murder

5. Dian Peter Domach

• Convicted of robbery and possession of a firearm

• Member of an armed robbery crew in Nebraska

• Convicted of possession of burglar’s tools and defaced firearms

• Convicted of DUI

6. Kyaw Mya

• Convicted of lascivious acts with a child under 12

• Charged with second-degree sex abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse

7. Nyo Myint

• Convicted of first-degree sexual assault involving an incapacitated victim

• Charged with aggravated assault

8. Tuan Thanh Phan

• Convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree assault

The men had been held securely in Djibouti, per an order from Boston federal judge Brian Murphy, under watch by American authorities. DHS revealed in that the men had violent criminal convictions, including for murder and rape.

"We conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States. No country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric," DHS said, sharing the identities of some of the men.

The Trump administration has sought the ability to deport illegal immigrants to nations other than their home country, noting that there are many countries that will not take illegal immigrants to the United States back.