A federal judge intervened on Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration from deporting eight migrants to South Sudan, a country plagued by violence and political instability. The emergency order was issued by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss during a rare July 4 court session, giving the men’s legal team time to present their case to a Massachusetts court.
The migrants, who hail from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Burma, Sudan, and Vietnam, had been detained for six weeks at a U.S. military base in Djibouti. On Thursday, they filed new legal claims following a Supreme Court clarification that removed a requirement for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep them in the U.S.
Judge Moss’s ruling temporarily bars the government from moving the men until 4:30 p.m. ET. The group had been scheduled for deportation to South Sudan on a 7 p.m. flight.
The case underscores the broader legal and ethical concerns surrounding the Trump administration’s strategy of relocating migrants to third countries under diplomatic agreements—often far from their homelands. U.S. attorneys argued that halting such transfers could damage foreign relations and discourage countries from accepting future migrant relocations.
DHS has stated that several of the men have criminal convictions, including four for murder. However, their lawyers argue that sending them to South Sudan—one of the world’s most dangerous regions—would violate the U.S. Constitution’s protection against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The State Department currently warns Americans not to travel to South Sudan due to ongoing armed conflict and violent crime. The United Nations has cautioned that the country’s political instability threatens to reignite the civil war that ended in 2018.
Judge Moss acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations. While transferring the case to Massachusetts, he noted that if the men’s claims about government motives hold up, they may have a valid constitutional argument.
“It seems to me almost self-evident,” Moss said, “that the United States government cannot take human beings and send them to circumstances in which their physical well-being is at risk—either to punish them or to send a message to others.”
