After the legal battle, the US sent eight detainees into the country to advise its citizens not to visit due to “crime, conflict.”
The US confirmed that it had completed the deportation of eight men into South Sudan the day after a US judge paved the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to send it to a violently attacked African country.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Saturday that the man was deported a day ago after losing a last-minute legal bid to halt their transfers on Friday US Independence Day.
Eight detainees – immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, South Sudan and Vietnam were on alert for weeks at US military bases in Djibouti.
A staff member working at South Sudan’s Juba Airport told Reuters that the aircraft carrying the man arrived at 6am (04:00 GMT) on Saturday. The current location is unknown.
In a statement, the DHS said eight men were convicted of various crimes including first-degree murder, robbery, drug trafficking and sexual assault.
Their lawsuits were the flashpoint of continuing legal battles over the Trump administration’s massive deportation campaign.
“Deporting these third countries is wrong, and the US should not literally send people to war zones,” progressive Democrat Pramila Jayapal wrote on social media earlier this week.
Eight men have been held in Djibouti’s modified shipping container since late May. This was stopped by the court for concerns about the legitimate process of previous deportation flights to South Sudan.
The US Supreme Court twice ruled that the Trump administration could deport them to countries outside of their homeland and issue their latest decision on Thursday (PDF).
That same night, eight detainees filed an appeal, claiming that “unacceptably punitive” deportation to South Sudan would violate the US Constitution and would ban “cruel and extraordinary punishment.”
But Boston Judge Brian Murphy had earlier ruled that he had stopped efforts to launch deportation to African countries, but on Friday evening the Supreme Court tied his hands and cleared the path ahead.
On Saturday, DHS Deputy Chief Tricia McLaughlin welcomed the rescue as a “win for the law, security and security of the American people.”
The US State Department advises citizens not to travel to South Sudan due to “crime, tricks, armed conflict.”
The United Nations has also warned that a political crisis involving African countries could rekindle the brutal civil war that ended in 2018.
Last week, Blaine Bookey, director of the University of San Francisco, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California’s Faculty of Law, condemned third countries for the use of US deportation.
“In the face of the right to legitimate processes, the international legal obligations of the United States, and the fundamental principles of human decency, the increased use of third country transfers is an increase in the flight of fly,” the statement said.
