Deported migrants entered U.S. legally
Trump administration sends about 12 migrants to South Sudan
By: Eduardo Cuevas
USA Today
..... The Trump administration has sent about a dozen migrants to South Sudan according to lawyers representing some of the detainees, who say their removal violates a Massachusetts judge's order from April [2025] that requires migrants to be allowed due process before deportation.
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The news came out after a libertarian think tank reported that at least 50 of the Venezuelan men that Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador entered the United States legally, contrary to White House assertions.
..... court filings on May 20 said about 12 people were en route to South Sudan, which the State Department says has significant human rights issues and remains unstable years after the end of a civil war. Lawyers for the men field an emergency motion to temporarily block their removal to South Sudan. The administration failed to allow the clients to apply for protection to the United Nations Convention Against Torture to prevent them from being removed to South Sudan, they said.
..... The filings referenced an email from the wife of one detained Vietnamese man who was being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center in Texas. she said her husband's removal order indicated he would be sent to Vietnam. then she learned he'd been deported to South Sudan. The group, she said, includes people from Laos, Thailand, Pakistan, Korea and Mexico.
..... In a filing late on May 20, [2025] the same federal district judge, Brian Murphy, ordered the government to maintain custody and control of those removed to South Sudan or any other third Country. He said this was "to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful."
..... south Sudan has had political violence and instability with civilian deaths, abductions and displacements as recently as 2024, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, which said the country has one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
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The Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
..... The analysis of the Venezuelan deportations by the Cato Institute, which favors limited government, came out May 19 [2025] and contradicts the federal government's assertion that all 340 men they sent to El Salvador's Terrorism confinement Center, or CECOT, were gang members living in the United States illegally.
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"They've effectively turned these legal immigrants into illegal aliens," said David Bier, Cato's director of immigration studies and lead author of the report. "It's shocking the extent to which the government has attempted to conceal information about these people."
..... Cato found that 50 of the men entered legally into the United States out of about 90 who had known routes of entry into the country. They include construction workers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a veterinarian and a makeup artist.
..... Among the 50 people who entered legally, one had a tourist visa and four were refugees. The rest were permitted entry through CBP One, a Joe Biden-era app that allowed migrants to seek asylum form outside of the country and schedule an appointment with U.S. immigration officials. The Trump administration has transformed it into a self-deportation app.
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Of those who used CBP One, 24 people were paroled into the country to live and work legally for up to two years, while 21 others were detained when they turned up for their appointment.
..... Before arriving in the country, the people were vetted and screened, had advanced permission to enter and didn't violate immigration law, Bier's review said.
Then, the government "turned around and 'disappearance' them without due process to a foreign prison."
..... The White House
didn't respond directly to Cato's findings and deferred agency-specific questions to CECOT are dangerous criminals and pose a risk to the American public," White House spokespersons Abigail Jackson said in a statement. "USA Today should cover the victims of criminal illegal aliens instead of carrying water for the criminals."
..... Few of the Venezuelans sent to CECOT have criminal records, according to analyses by researchers and journalists. Reuters found dozens had active asylum cases. CBS News, which obtained a list of names, couldn't find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans, either in the United States or abroad. The New York times found little evidence the men had criminal backgrounds.
..... Just two of the 50 legal immigrants appear to have had any type of criminal convictions in the United States, both for minor drug offenses.
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Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, 27, who entered using CBP One, had a misdemeanor in Texas for possessing drug paraphernalia, reportedly form a marijuana trimmer found in his coworker's car, according to NBC News. Tourist visa holder Kevin Nieto Contreras, 27 pleaded guilty to a 2023 offense where "a small amount" of prohibited substance was found at a Colorado nightclub, according to the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.
..... White House officials have called the men criminals and members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. The Trump administration has cited tattoos they say prove gang ties. Experts say the tattoos offer no confirmation of any allegiance to Tren de Aragua or other Venezuelan gangs.
..... The families of the legal immigrants denied gang membership, Cato noted.
..... In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security, said many people counted as "non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S. Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally."
..... There is no publicly available information on about one-third of the men sent to CECOT. Cato said. Some information was available for about 85 of the men, but it wasn't clear how they had crossed. Much of the information, Bier said, has only come through journalists and other outside groups.