This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration moved to deport eight men to South Sudan in what a federal judge in Boston says was “unquestionably” a violation of a court order.
What happened? On Tuesday, the US government put eight men — only one a South Sudanese citizen — on a deportation flight to South Sudan, an unstable country in East Africa that is on the verge of civil war, with minimal notice and no chance to speak with a lawyer. Their exact location is now unclear.
What have courts ruled about deportations? A court order from April, issued by the same federal judge, Brian Murphy, blocked the Trump administration from deporting immigrants to countries not their own without due process because of the possibility they could face violence or death there.
What will happen to the immigrants who were deported? Murphy has ordered the government to keep the men in US custody while considering how to ensure their due process rights, but they won’t be flown back to the US. Murphy also raised the possibility of criminal contempt sanctions for officials involved in the deportations.
What’s the context? This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has attempted deportations to a dangerous third-party country. Not only has the administration sent Venezuelan immigrants to a brutal El Salvadoran megaprison, but Murphy, the federal judge in Boston, also intervened earlier in May to block deportation flights to Libya.
What does this mean for Trump’s immigration plans? The Trump administration is almost certain to keep testing the limits of what it can do on immigration. In an interview published today, Vice President JD Vance alleged that “you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people” on immigration enforcement, raising the specter of more clashes to come.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
The promise of this newsletter is to help you get the important news, then log off. So we’d be remiss in not sharing Vox deputy editor Izzie Ramirez’s attempt to do just that: For (almost) a full month, she abandoned her iPhone and switched to a “dumbphone” that could do little more than text and call. She writes that the experience encouraged deeper connections and spontaneous hangs, and helped restore her attention span. Couldn’t we all use that?
