The deportees are stuck in Djibouti amid a legal fight over their expulsions. A lawyer for some of the men said she was concerned for their health and welfare.

The Trump administration “unquestionably” violated a court order when it put seven men on a deportation flight bound for South Sudan, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, suggesting that administration officials may have committed criminal contempt.

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. government violated his court order by attempting to deport migrants to South Sudan, opening another front in a simmering battle between Donald Trump and judges who have imposed checks on the Republican president's hardline immigration policies.