US judge accuses Trump admin of ‘manufacturing chaos’ in South Sudan deportations, escalating feud

A federal judge in Massachusetts chastised senior Trump officials Monday night for failing to comply with his court orders after a group of migrants was deported from the U.S. to South Sudan — the latest dust-up centered on deportations, due process protections and the administration’s willingness, or lack thereof, to comply with federal courts.

In a scathing, 17-page order, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy rejected Trump’s request to amend or withdraw the judge's earlier decision requiring them to keep in U.S. custody six migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice. 

On Wednesday, Murphy ordered that the migrants remain in U.S. custody at a military base in Djibouti until each of them could be given a "reasonable fear interview," or a chance to explain to U.S. officials any fear of persecution or torture, should they be released into South Sudanese custody. 

As of Monday night, he said, these interviews had not taken place.

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"It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated," Murphy said in his order, noting that the Trump administration is free to return individuals to have the interviews carried out on U.S. soil. 

He also took aim at Trump officials for attacking the courts, noting Monday night that defendants here have "mischaracterized" the court's order, "while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry."

The salvo comes as Murphy, a federal judge in Boston, presides over a class-action lawsuit from migrants who are challenging deportations to third countries, including South Sudan, El Salvador and other countries, including Costa Rica, Guatemala and others that the administration has reportedly eyed in its ongoing wave of deportations.

In considering the third-country removals, Murphy stressed that he has attempted to strike a delicate balance between due process protections under the U.S. Constitution and the Trump administration's wave of eleventh-hour removals and deportations. 

Murphy noted that he allowed the Trump administration to keep the six deported migrants in South Sudan under the custody of U.S. officials, so long as they carry out the so-called "reasonable fear interviews," and make a determination over whether the migrants' concerns were adequate.

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"The court never said that defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility," Murphy wrote in his order Monday night. "It only left that as an option, again, at defendants’ request."

Murphy also doubled down on his earlier orders as "sensible and conservative," noting that he had repeatedly attempted to strike the right balance in weighing the Trump administration's requests for the men to remain in South Sudan against their right to habeas proceedings and due process under the U.S. Constitution. 

He also cited DOJ's seemingly fluid position as to what constitutes adequate notice for removals. He said Justice Department attorneys previously told the court that they believe that 24 hours is sufficient and meaningful notice to remove certain migrants, before breaking with that in removing the men to South Sudan. 

These individuals also do not appear to have any access to counsel. In one case, he said, plaintiffs declared Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had canceled at least one prerescheduled meeting with an attorney and her client.

"Class members likewise had no opportunity to learn anything about South Sudan, a nascent, unstable country to which the United States has recently told its citizens not to travel because of crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict," Murphy said.

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The judge's order is the latest attempt by federal courts judges to rein in the Trump administration as it continues to deport migrants to third countries, including El Salvador and South Sudan. 

U.S. judges have repeatedly ruled that the Trump administration has violated due process by failing to notify the migrants of their imminent removals, or afford them any opportunity to challenge their deportations in court— a view reiterated, albeit narrowly, by the Supreme Court four separate times since Trump took office.

The judges have repeatedly ordered the Trump administration to facilitate their return to the U.S. To date, the Trump administration has not complied publicly with any of the requests to return the deported individuals.

White House officials, meanwhile, have blasted so-called "activist" judges as attempting to enact a political agenda, and have repeatedly rejected the notion that illegal immigrants are not entitled to due process. 

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Trump took aim at what he described as "USA hating judges" in a Truth Social post Monday, arguing that they "suffer from an ideology that is sick and very dangerous for our country."

Earlier, he described Murphy as yet another "activist judge" who he said is trying to protect "criminal illegal immigrant monsters." 

"The court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories," Murphy wrote in an apparent response to these comments Monday night.

"But that does not change due process," he wrote. "The court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand."

Murphy added in his order that the Trump administration is welcome to submit its arguments to the court in writing.

But he noted, "From this course of conduct, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that Defendants invite lack of clarity as a means of evasion."

As of Monday, he said, this step had not been completed.