Trump officials say judge blocking murderers’ deportations ruining U.S. foreign policy talks

The Trump administration has obliquely warned judges for months that their immigration rulings interfered with touchy foreign policy negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has now delivered the goods.

In a startling filing with a federal court, Mr. Rubio said U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy may have fueled a civil war in Libya, disrupted U.S. counterterrorism operations in eastern Africa and dented America’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid in that region by considering an order to return deported murderers and sex offenders.

A senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the judge is meddling in complex immigration matters that require speed and precision.

Judge Murphy, a Biden appointee who sits in Massachusetts, became the latest federal judge to pick up the banner of illegal immigrants’ “due process” rights and the latest to anger the Trump administration.

He imposed strict limits that he thought would have blocked a flight last week of high-level deportees to South Sudan.

After the flight, the judge said his orders had been defied and demanded that the government find a way to hold hearings for the eight deportees, most of them sex offenders or murderers, to determine whether they must be returned. He said he feared that their right to object to the deportation had been violated.

“Based on what I have learned, I don’t see how anybody could say these individuals had a meaningful opportunity to object,” Judge Murphy said.

Trump officials rushed to vilify Judge Murphy.

The Department of Homeland Security introduced into the case files detailing the criminal histories of the eight men on the plane, including a Laotian man who killed a German tourist, a Mexican gang suspect who fatally stabbed his roommate, and a Myanmar man convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child from age 7 to 12.

Homeland Security said the crimes were so barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.

Judge Murphy’s order follows those of Judge James Boasberg in Washington, who tried to halt three deportation flights to El Salvador in March, and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, who has ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The administration said the judges meddled in touchy foreign affairs in both cases, but it provided scant details.

On Friday, Mr. Rubio said Judge Murphy’s orders meant the high-level deportees on the plane were required to temporarily remain at the only U.S. military base in Africa, in Djibouti. That created a wrinkle with the Djibouti government and interfered with counterterrorism operations, Mr. Rubio said.

In South Sudan, the judge’s rulings have upended the careful diplomacy that persuaded the country to accept the deportees. One of South Sudan’s citizens was on the plane. The ramifications run deeper.

Mr. Rubio said South Sudan is a critical location for U.S. humanitarian relief, and anything that hinders cooperation with that government damages those efforts.

“It is almost certain the court’s interjection will result in delayed or significantly reduced humanitarian efforts,” Mr. Rubio said.

He said Libya, which had been secretly negotiating with the U.S. to take deportees, has had to publicly reject the idea. The judge’s action emboldened rebel forces in Libya, igniting the worst street fighting in three years in the capital, Tripoli, Mr. Rubio said.

Mr. Rubio said the unrest also stalled negotiations on a U.S. company’s energy deal with Libya.

In another court filing Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the judge’s ruling will cost the government money because it gives some illegal immigrants new rights of appeal, meaning they must be held in custody at least 25 days longer.

“The process imposed by the court creates a vicious cycle that would require ICE to relitigate enforceable removal orders when attempting to remove aliens who have no right to remain in the United States, but hail from countries who refuse to cooperate with the acceptance of their criminal citizens,” said Garrett Ripa, a senior ICE official.

Mr. Ripa said ICE must obtain travel documents for every deportee and that the papers are good for only a short period. The judge’s ordered delays could force ICE to restart the process, “wasting” time and money or forcing “dangerous criminals” to be released into communities.

Judge Murphy has pointed to ICE’s acknowledged “error” that led to the deportation of a Guatemalan man to Mexico without determining whether it was safe for him.

On Friday, the judge ordered the U.S. to return the man, identified in court documents by the initials OCG.

“Defendants are hereby ordered to take all immediate steps, including coordinating with plaintiffs’ counsel, to facilitate the return of OCG to the United States,” Judge Murphy wrote.

OCG had previously been kidnapped and raped in Mexico.