A United States judge has rebuked the administration of President Donald Trump, saying that reports of deportations to South Sudan appear to violate his previous court order.
On Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts, US District Court Judge Brian Murphy held a virtual hearing to weigh an emergency motion on behalf of deported migrants reportedly on board a flight to South Sudan.
He asked lawyers for the Trump administration to identify where the migrants were. He also indicated that he could ask for the flight to be turned around and called for the pilots to be made aware of his court order.
“Based on what I have been told, this seems like it may be contempt,” Judge Murphy told Elianis Perez, a lawyer for the Trump Justice Department.
Perez responded to Murphy’s requests for the plane’s whereabouts by saying the Department of Homeland Security had deemed such information “classified”. Perez also indicated that the Trump administration did not consider itself in violation of Murphy’s previous court order. (Aljazeera)