United States and South Sudan agreed to single deportation flight via diplomatic notes

The United States and South Sudan reached the only written third-country removal agreement made public to date via an exchange of diplomatic notes on May 10 and 12, 2025; the notes were not disclosed publicly until January 2026. The U.S. Embassy's May 10 note attached a list naming 13 individuals proposed for transfer — citizens of Bolivia, Burma, Cuba, Laos, Mali, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Vietnam — each listed with a serious criminal conviction (homicide, rape, or sexual assault). South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied on May 12 agreeing to accept the request, while attaching a list of eight reciprocal asks it said it was raising "in a constructive and cordial manner": normalizing diplomatic relations, removing individual U.S. sanctions on Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel specifically, reversing recent visa restrictions on South Sudanese citizens, U.S. support disarming armed civilians, establishing a rehabilitation facility, U.S. support holding opposition leader Riek Machar "accountable" under South Sudanese law, lifting restrictions on South Sudan's oil companies, and U.S. investment in the country's oil, gas, and mineral sectors. A federal court in Boston had issued a preliminary injunction on April 18, 2025 specifically barring third-country removals without meaningful notice and an opportunity to raise a fear of harm in the destination country.

In direct tension with that injunction, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered a plane already carrying eight men toward South Sudan on May 20, 2025 to divert, finding the removal "unquestionably" violated his order requiring notice and an opportunity to raise a fear of harm. Rather than return the men to the United States, DHS held them for weeks at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, in a converted shipping container an immigration official's own court filing described as lacking reliable electricity and posing health risks to the guarding personnel. The Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled June 23, 2025 that immigration officials could resume third-country removals without the notice Murphy's order required, and on July 3 formally lifted the block on the South Sudan flight specifically. DHS completed the deportation the next day, with Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin declaring in a statement, "These sickos were finally deported to South Sudan on Independence Day" and celebrating the removal of men she called "barbaric criminal illegal aliens who are so heinous even their own countries will not accept them." On arrival, the men were held in a guarded compound that lacked reliable electricity, according to Senate oversight correspondence to the State and Homeland Security Inspectors General. A U.S. Senate letter from Senators Warren, Van Hollen, Ramirez, and Carter separately raised concern that DHS's own removal guidance for third-country transfers had not been updated even after a February 2026 court ruling that found the broader policy unlawful, and that DHS's stated position claims the department may remove people to any country that gives a generic, DHS-credited assurance against persecution "without the need for further procedures."