Judge says deporting migrants to Libya would violate his order
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that deporting noncitizens to Libya without due process would violate his existing court order, after sources said the White House has discussed such plans.
Lawyers representing a group of migrants filed an emergency motion seeking to prevent their deportation to Libya or Saudi Arabia, citing both press reports and firsthand accounts from migrants who alleged they were actively being prepared for removal to Libya or Saudi Arabia on military aircraft.
Sending noncitizens to Libya or Saudi Arabia without giving them a chance to raise concerns about their safety "blatantly defies this Court's preliminary injunctions," lawyers representing the migrants argued in an emergency motion filed in federal court in Boston, where U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy last month issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens to any country other than their place of origin without due process.
In his order Wednesday, Judge Murphy clarified that any "allegedly imminent removals" to a country like Libya or Saudi Arabia would violate the preliminary injunction he issued last month.
"If there is any doubt -- the Court sees none -- the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as Plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information, would clearly violate this Court's Order," Judge Murphy wrote about potential deportations to Saudi Arabia or to Libya, an Arab country located in North Africa that the U.S. State Department has advised American citizens not to travel to due to "crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict."
"Any Class Member who is removed to Libya faces a strong likelihood of imprisonment followed by torture and even disappearance or death," the plaintiffs' motion said. "Indeed, given Libya's human rights record, it is inconceivable that Class Members from other countries would ever agree to removal to Libya, but instead would uniformly seek protection from being removed to Libya."
To support their application for the emergency order, lawyers representing the noncitizens included a series of exhibits showing the scramble that played out over the last day as the attorneys sought to determine if any of their clients were bound for Libya. According to the lawyers, Laotian, Vietnamese and Philippine immigrants are at risk of removal.
According to two lawyers whose correspondence was included as exhibits, their clients were informed that they would be removed to Libya and were asked to sign documents agreeing to the deportations. When one of the men and a group of other migrants declined to sign the document, they were allegedly handcuffed in separate rooms "in order to get them to sign it," according to one lawyer.
"ICE [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] did not advise him that he has a right to request a reasonable fear interview, nor did ICE provide me with any notice of their intention to remove him to Libya, in clear violation of the district court's orders," another lawyer wrote.
Reports that the administration is considering deportations to Libya follow the government's deportation of several hundred alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador as part of a $6 million deal the Trump administration made with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to house detainees at the CECOT mega-prison there.
Lawyers representing the noncitizens said they reached out to the Trump administration to confirm whether any class members are onboard flights to Libya and Saudi Arabia but had not heard back.
Asked earlier Wednesday if the United States will be sending migrants to Libya, President Donald Trump told reporters, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Homeland Security."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was asked about potential plans Wednesday morning prior to Trump's comments, said, "I can't confirm anything."
Libya's Government of National Unity has denied any connection to reports regarding the deportation of migrants to that country, saying in a statement that "the Government affirms that it rejects the use of Libyan territory as a destination for the deportation of migrants without its knowledge or consent."
ABC News has reached out to Libya's competing government, the Government of National Stability, for comment.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
