Federal Choose Randolph Moss issued an emergency order on July 4, 2025, quickly blocking the deportation of eight migrants to South Sudan simply hours earlier than their scheduled 7 PM flight. The dramatic halt got here lower than 24 hours after the Supreme Courtroom’s conservative majority cleared the way in which for his or her elimination, overriding a Boston decide’s protections.
The boys, from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, had been held six weeks at Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. army base in Djibouti, the place they lived in transformed delivery containers amid malaria dangers and insufficient medical care.
Moss’s order, expiring at 4:30 PM ET, allowed time to listen to arguments that deporting them to a rustic the place they haven’t any ties violates their due course of rights.
Migrants face ‘speedy detention or loss of life’ in battle zone
Not one of the eight males have connections to South Sudan, a rustic the U.S. State Division warns Individuals to keep away from because of rampant violent crime, kidnapping, and lively civil struggle.
Their legal professionals argued they may face “torture, imprisonment or loss of life” upon arrival, citing UN studies of escalating violence and meals shortages.
Although all had legal convictions within the U.S., a number of had accomplished sentences and deliberate voluntary returns to their house nations earlier than being rerouted.
The Trump administration claimed “credible diplomatic assurances” from South Sudan about their security, an assertion immigration advocates dismissed, given the nation’s instability.
Nationwide protests escalate amid deportation crackdown
This case coincides with mass protests towards Trump’s immigration insurance policies, with over 260 “Free America” demonstrations occurring nationwide.
In Los Angeles, nightly curfews continued after clashes between protesters and 700 Marines deployed by Trump, whereas New York police arrested 110 protesters outdoors immigration courts.
The “Shut Down ICE” motion noticed rallies in 30+ cities, together with Kansas Metropolis the place a whole lot blocked streets chanting “Cease the deportations!”
These demonstrations intensified following ICE raids focusing on Latino communities, inflicting a number of California cities to cancel July 4 celebrations over security fears.
Authorized battles expose systemic immigration conflicts
Choose Moss’s intervention follows one other landmark ruling on July 2, the place he blocked Trump’s “invasion” proclamation that banned asylum claims on the southern border.
That call—applauded by ACLU legal professionals as defending “Congress’s energy to move legal guidelines”—discovered Trump lacked authority to create an “different immigration system”.
In the meantime, the Supreme Courtroom’s 6-3 conservative majority has repeatedly backed Trump’s deportation agenda, with Justice Sotomayor accusing colleagues of placing the administration “on pace dial” whereas “rewarding lawlessness”.
These clashes spotlight a fractured system the place 250+ lawsuits problem Trump’s immigration orders.
