Lawyers Scramble To Stop Deportation Flight To Libya They Say ‘blatantly’ Defies Court Order

The Trump administration is on the verge of “blatantly” defying a court order by deporting immigrants from Asia to the war-torn African nation of Libya, attorneys for the immigrants said Wednesday.

Citing “alarming reports” in the media and accounts from some of their clients, the lawyers filed an emergency motion seeking to block a military flight that appeared to be on the verge of taking off from the U.S.

The lawyers say their clients — nationals of Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines — are at risk of being sent to Libya in defiance of an earlier court order prohibiting deportations to so-called third-party countries without notice and a chance to make a legal challenge. They’re asking Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy to quickly prevent any such flights and ensure the Trump administration is complying with his earlier order. They also asked Murphy to block flights to potential “stopover” nations like Saudi Arabia.

Murphy ruled last month that any immigrant expelled to a country “not explicitly provided for on the alien’s order of removal” be given written notice and a “meaningful” chance to contest their deportation to that country if they fear they may face torture or persecution there.

The administration’s apparent plan to quickly expel a group of immigrants to Libya transgresses that earlier order, the immigrants’ lawyers said.

“This motion should not even be required as it blatantly defies this Court’s preliminary injunctions,” the lawyers told Murphy Wednesday.

Shortly after Murphy’s original order, the Trump administration sent two groups of migrants to overseas detention in El Salvador, raising questions about whether it had violated his directives. The administration argued that those deportations were legal because they were not carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but solely by the Pentagon, which was not explicitly covered by his initial order. As a result, Murphy — a Biden appointee — expanded his order last week to forbid ICE from handing off immigrants to other agencies “in any manner that prevents an alien from receiving … due-process guarantees.”

Reuters and The New York Times first reported Tuesday that the Trump administration was preparing to deport people to Libya.

It’s unclear which arm of the U.S. government is orchestrating the deportations reported to be imminent, but some reports have said the U.S. military was expected to provide the aircraft.

It’s also unclear how many people are being targeted for the deportations and how much formal notice, if any, they have received of their destination. In the emergency motion Wednesday, the immigrants’ lawyers said one of their clients, a Filipino man, was told that he would be sent to Libya, but neither he nor his lawyer was given written notice. Another detainee, a man from Laos, said he was verbally told he would be sent to Saudi Arabia on a military flight.

President Donald Trump, when asked if his administration was sending immigrants to Libya on Wednesday, said “I don’t know,” and referred reporters to the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS spokesperson declined to comment on any planned deportation flights to Libya.

The Trump administration has been discussing so-called safe third country agreements with a number of nations. They’ve also worked to reach potential agreements with countries to detain people deported from the United States, similar to the agreement they reached with El Salvador.

“There’s talks underway with countries,” border czar Tom Homan said at the White House on Monday, though he declined to say how many countries were involved in the discussions.

It’s part of the Trump administration’s effort to shift some of the burden on the U.S. asylum system and to deter migration to the United States. But the latest move, if the administration follows through, would mark a dramatic escalation because anyone sent there may face brutal conditions and human rights violations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said the administration is proposing sending some of “the most despicable human beings” to other countries, adding “the further away from America, the better.”

Libya, which remains divided after years of civil war, is controlled by a United Nations-recognized government in the west and military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east. Haftar’s son, Saddam, was in Washington last week, meeting with Trump administration officials.

Libya has a number of detention facilities for refugees and migrants, which human rights groups have described as “deplorable” and have warned are rampant with mistreatment, torture and forced labor and slavery.