A Boston-based federal judge lambasted the Trump administration for misrepresenting his order and falsely attacking him Monday, amid a dispute over the administration’s illegal effort to deport undocumented men to South Sudan without first giving them due process.
“Defendants have mischaracterized this Court’s order, while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry,” U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said Monday.
Murphy had previously prevented the government from moving migrants to countries other than their own, so-called “third-country deportations,” without first giving them adequate notice and a chance to express fear of persecution or torture if they are transferred.
Last week, Murphy said the Trump administration “unquestionably” violated his order by attempting to move multiple undocumented men to South Sudan, a country on the verge of civil war that the men are not citizens of and have no relation to, without giving them due process.
Rather than ordering the government to return the men to the U.S., Murphy let it come up with its own way to remedy the violation. At the Department of Justice’s suggestion, the judge allowed the government to retain custody over the men at a U.S. military base in Djibouti but ordered that the men be given a chance to object to being transferred to South Sudan.
Almost immediately after Murphy issued his order, he was attacked by President Donald Trump and his officials.
“The Judges are absolutely out of control, they’re hurting our Country, and they know nothing about particular situations, or what they are doing — And this must change, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said of Murphy.
Senior White House aide Stephen Miller called the judge a “lunatic” who “trapped” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Djibouti.
“It cannot be said enough that this is the result Defendants asked for,” Murphy said in denying the Trump administration’s request to stay his previous order.
“The Court never said that Defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility; it only left that as an option, again, at Defendants’ request. The other option, of course, has always been to simply return to the status quo of roughly one week ago, or else choose any other location to complete the required process.”
“It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated,” he added.
In response to the Trump administration’s attack on him, Murphy pleaded for it to tone down its rhetoric.
“It continues to be this Court’s sincere hope that reason can get the better of rhetoric,” the judge said.