WASHINGTON
\nThe US government on Wednesday justified its decision to deport a group of migrants, several of them Asian, to impoverished South Sudan \u2014 now in the throes of internal conflict \u2014 but suggested it was not their last stop.
\nDepartment of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin slammed a federal judge in Boston for suspending the expulsion, accusing him of \u201ctrying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters.\u201d
\nDonald Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants, and he has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations since returning to the White House in January.
\nTrump claims that the United States is facing an \u201cinvasion\u201d from foreign criminals.
\nBut his mass deportation efforts have been thwarted or stalled by numerous courts, including the Supreme Court, over concerns that migrant rights are being ignored. At a new hearing on Wednesday, District Judge Brian Murphy said the government had violated one of his previous orders, calling the timeframe given for the migrants to contest their expulsions \u201cplainly insufficient.\u201d
\nThe White House identified the eight men as two citizens of Myanmar, two Cubans, a Vietnamese man, a Laotian, a Mexican and a South Sudanese citizen. The statement listed the crimes they allegedly committed. \u201cThese are the only eight on the flight,\u201d McLaughlin told reporters. \u201cBecause of safety and operational security, we cannot tell you what the final destination for these individuals will be,\u201d she said.
\nWhen pressed on the question, she said: \u201cWe\u2019re confirming the fact that that\u2019s not their final destination,\u201d though she never named South Sudan as the stopover country.\u201dThey\u2019re still in DHS custody,\u201d McLaughlin told the press conference, when asked if the administration was respecting the judge\u2019s decision.
\n\u201cWe are following due process under the US Constitution.\u201d While the government said those scheduled for expulsion had ample warning, lawyers for the Vietnamese national and one citizen of Myanmar said in court filings that their clients only learned the night before or on Tuesday, when the flight left. The attorneys argue that the government violated an earlier order by not allowing their clients time to file for protection under the UN Convention against Torture.
\nWhen Murphy temporarily blocked the government from expelling Asian migrants to Libya earlier this month, he said migrants being sent to a third country had to be afforded the time to request such protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON The US government on Wednesday justified its decision to deport a group of migrants, several of them Asian, to impoverished South Sudan \u2014 now in the throes of internal conflict \u2014 but suggested it was not their last stop. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin slammed a federal judge in Boston for suspending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-480249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n