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The Justice Department said one migrant was flown back to his home country of Myanmar, but declined to identify the country that a second migrant was sent to, calling it classified.
May 20, 2025Updated 7:13 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Boston pressed the Trump administration on Tuesday for answers about whether the government deported migrants to South Sudan without due process, a move he said would violate an order he issued in April.
The stern remarks by the judge, Brian E. Murphy, came at a hastily called hearing in Federal District Court in Boston where immigration lawyers said at least two migrants had been told they were going to be deported to the violence-plagued country in Africa.
After a break in the proceedings to gather information, a lawyer for the Justice Department, Elianis N. Perez, said that one of the migrants, who is Burmese, was returned to Myanmar, not South Sudan. But she declined to say where the second migrant, a Vietnamese man, was deported, saying it was classified information.
“Where is the plane?” Judge Murphy asked.
“I’m told that that information is classified, and I am told that the final destination is also classified,” Ms. Perez said. She said the government had not violated any court orders because the man had not claimed to be fearful of removal.
Judge Murphy asked what authority the government was using to classify the location of the deportation flight. “I don’t have the answer to that,” she responded.
The judge warned that officials involved in the deportations who were aware of his order, including potentially the pilots of the plane, could face criminal sanctions. “Based on what I have been told,” he said, “this seems like it may be contempt.”
