Key points
- Such deportations would violate my previous order: Judge
- Trump says he does not know about plan to deport migrants to Libya
- Homeland Security may not evade this injunction by ceding control over non-citizens: Judge
ISLAMABAD: A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling Asian migrants to war-torn Libya following an emergency appeal from the would-be deportees’ lawyers.
AFP reported that district Judge Brian Murphy said such deportations would violate his previous order that migrants being sent to a country other than their own first be given a “meaningful” opportunity to challenge their removal in court and show that they may face persecution.
Emergency motion
Murphy’s ruling came in response to an emergency motion from lawyers for migrants from Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam who said they were in “imminent” danger of being deported to Libya.
“The allegedly imminent removals, as reported by AFP,” the judge said, “would clearly violate this Court’s Order.”
“The Department of Homeland Security may not evade this injunction by ceding control over non-citizens or the enforcement of its immigration responsibilities to any other agency, including but not limited to the Department of Defense,” Murphy added.
Earlier, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was planning to deport a group of migrants to Libya on a US military plane.
1798 Alien Enemies Act
According to BBC, asked whether he was aware of the plan to deport migrants to Libya, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask homeland security.”
Federal judges have since blocked further deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II, AFP reported.
Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) denied meanwhile that it had reached a deal with Washington to take in migrants expelled from the United States.
Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi.
