The decision comes after two federal judges blocked the deportation of eight illegal immigrants to South Sudan.
A federal judge on Friday allowed the Trump administration to deport eight illegal immigrants to South Sudan, after a Supreme Court ruling that had blocked the previous block on their removal.
In a brief ruling on July 4, District Judge Brian Murphy rejected a bid to prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from deporting the illegal immigrants to South Sudan, just hours after District Judge Randolph Moss had temporarily halted the deportations and returned the case to Murphy.
The eight individuals, all charged with crimes, are currently held in a U.S. military facility in Djibouti amid the ongoing litigation.
Previously in May, Murphy ordered DHS to retain custody of the plaintiffs after he found that the department had deported about a dozen illegal immigrants from countries such as Vietnam and Burma (also known as Myanmar) to South Sudan in violation of a preliminary injunction he issued on April 18—which barred the deportation of illegal immigrants to a third country without first giving them a chance to raise any fear-based claims.
The Supreme Court last month blocked the April 18 injunction issued by Murphy that had barred DHS from deporting illegal immigrants to a third country of which they are not citizens.
Murphy later stated that his May order blocking the deportation of the eight illegal immigrants was still in effect, prompting the administration’s lawyers to seek clarification from the Supreme Court.
The court clarified on July 3 that its order also applied to the eight illegal immigrants, which it said has rendered Murphy’s May 21 injunction “unenforceable.”
Lawyers for the deportees filed a new petition following that ruling, which Murphy denied on July 4, citing the Supreme Court’s previous orders.
“This Court interprets these Supreme Court orders as binding on this new petition, as Petitioners are now raising substantially similar claims, and therefore Petitioners motion is denied,” the judge stated in a brief ruling.
Commenting on the ruling, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin accused Murphy of siding with “barbaric criminal illegal aliens” in his previous ruling, and expressed relief over the recent decision allowing the deportations to move forward.
