The day following the Supreme Court’s ruling, a federal judge in Boston temporarily stopped the deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan on Friday, referring the matter to another judge.
Following an unprecedented Fourth of July hearing on Friday afternoon, District Judge Randolph Moss sent the case north from Washington. He came to the conclusion that Brian Murphy, whose decisions caused the Trump administration’s attempt to start deportations to the eastern African nation to initially stall, was the judge most qualified to handle the problems.
Suggested Videos
Though it was unclear if Murphy would take any action on the federal holiday to further restrict the removal, he extended his order stopping the deportation until 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. Moss stated that the attorneys for the immigrants’ recent claims merited a hearing.
For weeks, the administration has been attempting to deport the immigrants. None are from South Sudan, where there is a civil war and the US government cautions against traveling there before arranging one’s own burial. Murphy’s ruling that no immigrant could be moved to a new nation without a chance for a court hearing prevented the government from taking them further, so they were flown to the U.S. Naval Base in Djibouti.
After issuing a new ruling last month, the Supreme Court clarified Thursday night that the immigrants could be relocated to South Sudan. Later that evening, the immigrants’ attorneys—who are from Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other nations—filed an urgent appeal to stop their deportation.
Moss was given the case, and until the end of his afternoon hearing, he temporarily prevented the government from relocating the Djibouti immigrants to South Sudan. When he forwarded the case to Murphy, he lowered that bar a little. According to the authorities, the immigrants should be flown to South Sudan on Friday.
Legal journalist Chris Geidner was the first to report on the temporary stay.
