The Trump administration deported eight migrants to South Sudan, according to an official of the Department of National Security, after the Administration had to stop their deportation to a base in Djibouti.
“A district judge cannot dictate the national security and foreign policy of the United States of America,” said Secretary Secretary Tricia McLaughlin to ABC News. “This Independence Day marks another victory for the security of the American people.”
The plane landed in South Sudan just before midnight on Friday.
The eight migrants, which the DHS claimed that they have serious criminal convictions, were subject to a lawsuit that had arrested their deportation to South Sudan and diverted them to an American military base in Djibouti.
In this archive photo of December 21, 2024, an aerial view of Djibouti, East Africa is shown.
Ludovic Marin/AFP through Getty Images, file
The conditions at the base, according to judicial presentations, were challenging for the detainees and the ICE officials who had the task of observing them.
The lawsuit reached the Supreme Court and the Court ruled that the Trump administration was not bound by a lower court order to keep them in a military installation in Djibouti.
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court clarified on Thursday that non-citizens that the Trump administration moved to deport South Sudan, and since then it has temporarily remained in Djibouti in the legal limbo, it is not bound by an order of the lower court to keep them there as legal procedures are developed.
The decision is another victory for the Trump administration and its unprecedented effort to deport immigrants to countries with which they have no ties and where they can face abuse.
The Supreme Court in Washington, DC, June 27, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP through Getty Images
In an unmarked opinion, the Supreme Court explained that when it raised the requirements of due process imposed by the judge for the moving of the third country last month, the government can no longer be considered to supposedly violate the requirements.
One of the lawyers representing the group of men called their deportation to South South “punitive and unconstitutional.”
“Due to the procedural decision of the Supreme Court, these men were denied the opportunity to dispute their deportations to South Sudan based on their fear of torture or death,” said Trina Realmuto in a statement to ABC News. “The United States Department of State warns of Americans against all trips to South Sudan, but these men were deported there without any due process. They are not mistaken about it, these deportations were punitive and unconstitutional.”
-Sura Romero de -abc News contributed to this report.
