As Trump has continued to implement what he calls the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” a plan that has alarmed legal experts, human rights organizations, and immigrant communities alike.
But one unexpected detail emerging from behind-the-scenes discussions has taken many by surprise: some deported immigrants, particularly those from Central America with unresolved legal status or lacking proper national identification, may be routed not to their countries of origin, but to distant nations like South Sudan under vague and loosely defined third-country agreements.
US must keep control of migrants sent to South Sudan in case removals were unlawful, judge rules
Human Rights Nightmare
The idea of sending Latino immigrants to South Sudan—a country they have no ties to—is not only legally dubious but morally outrageous. South Sudan is grappling with internal conflict, famine, and inadequate infrastructure. Deporting individuals with no cultural, linguistic, or familial connection to such an environment amounts to state-sanctioned exile and places these individuals in grave danger.
A federal judge is probing whether the Trump administration deported migrants to South Sudan on Tuesday in violation of an earlier order barring deportations of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a sufficient chance to contest their removal.
An order from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy late Tuesday directs the government to “maintain custody and control” of anyone deported to South Sudan covered under a lawsuit challenging the administration’s practice of deporting migrants to third countries “to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”
Should they come to pass, human rights watchdogs are already mobilizing to challenge such policies. “This is not deportation—it’s human dumping,” said Maria Alvarez, director of the Immigrant Rights Center. “You cannot take someone from El Salvador and drop them in Juba like it’s a game of geopolitical hot potato.”
