The foreign men convicted of crimes who were placed on a deportation flight headed for the chaotic nation of South Sudan were originally from countries as far away as Vietnam. They had lived in various places from California to Iowa, Nebraska to Florida, with one serving a sentence of nearly 30 years.
They were accused and convicted of crimes ranging from murder, to rape, robbery and assault.
Despite their criminal records, a federal judge says the White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries, adding these eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger.
Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston ordered a new set of interviews with the migrants, either back in the U.S. or abroad. Trump administration officials accused “activist judges” of advocating the release of dangerous criminals.
“No country on Earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
At least one of the victim's family members has come out to oppose the way the deportation was conducted and the fact that her family wasn't notified, while saying she had long hoped the man would leave the United States.
These are the migrants who were part of the deportation flight.
The only man from South Sudan on the flight was 33-year-old Dian Peter Domach. He was convicted in 2013 of robbery, for which he was sentenced to 8 to 14 years in prison; and of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, for which he was sentenced to 6 to 10 years. Those sentences were to be served one after the other. The Department of Homeland Security said Domach was also convicted of driving under the influence.
While in prison, he was convicted of “assault by a confined person” and sentenced to an additional 18 to 20 months. According to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Domach was released on “discretionary parole” on May 2 and arrested by immigration authorities six days later.
Records said he represented himself on appeal and in the most recent prison assault case.
One of the two deportees with life sentences is 48-year-old Thongxay Nilakout from Laos. He was convicted of killing a German woman and wounding her husband in 1994 when he was 17. The couple was visiting a popular tourist lookout east of Los Angeles during a trip to see their daughter.
Nilakout was sentenced to life in prison but was released in 2023 after his case was reviewed following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said mandatory life sentences for minors were unconstitutional. Nilakout was ordered removed to Laos by an immigration judge in 2023 and waived appeal, court records show.
The couple's daughter, Birte Pfleger, is now a history professor at California State University, Los Angeles. She called it a “real moral dilemma," explaining she is not happy with the way the deportation was conducted.
“No matter which way you slice it, you cannot violate people’s due process. That’s a fundamental constitutional right that has existed for well over 250 years,” she said.
But she hopes the man chooses to return voluntarily to Laos. Pfleger said she filled out forms that she has to be notified of any changes in Nilakout's case, but wasn't notified when the man was arrested by immigration authorities in January or when he was put on the flight.
“He supposedly had plans for that because he still has some relatives in Laos,” she said. “Well, guess what? Now’s the time. Go call those relatives. Go home. Don't come back.”
Kyaw Mya, a man from Myanmar who lived in Iowa, was convicted of sexually abusing a child under 12 years of age and sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Mya was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2021, and lost his appeal of that order in 2023, according to a statement from Marcos Charles, an assistant director of field operations with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a court filing late Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February.
An attorney for Mya did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Nyo Myint, another Burmese deportee, lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was accused in 2017 of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman with “diminished mental capacity” who ended up pregnant. The woman's sister said the victim had a mental capacity equal to a 3-year-old and that Myint had told her he was the child's father.
An arrest affidavit filed by the police said Myint admitted to having sex with the woman at least two times, saying he knew her since 2003 and knew she had gone to a school for children with mental disabilities. He admitted he made a mistake and felt it was wrong to have sex with her.
He was given a 12- to 14-year prison sentence in 2020 but released on probation in May 2023. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge that same year and waived appeal, court records show. ICE took custody of Myint in February.
Nathan Sohriakoff remembers defending Myint in the Nebraska case and communicating with him via interpreters. He hadn't heard he was part of the deportee group, which Trump administration officials are calling “barbaric monsters.”
“He was a small man, very petite. He didn’t speak a word of English and didn’t resist the charges,” Sohriakoff said. “I don’t remember feeling like he was dangerous. My general feeling of him was that he was limited in his ability as well, like cognitively, but not to the degree that I felt he was incompetent.”
The Department of Homeland Security says the flight included a Vietnamese man. Tuan Thanh Phan was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree assault and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
An immigration judge ordered Phan removed to Vietnam in 2009, and he waived his appeal, court records show. He was arrested by ICE earlier this month.
The Department of Homeland Security says the flight included two men from Cuba: Enrique Arias-Hierro and Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones.
Florida court records show Arias-Hierro, now 46, served 15 years in a state prison after being convicted of robbery, kidnapping and falsely impersonating an officer in 2007. Homeland Security officials say he was also convicted of homicide and armed robbery, but the records in Miami-Dade County did not include that. Arias-Hierro had already been ordered removed to Cuba by an immigration judge back in 1999, and did not file an appeal, court records show.
The attorney who last served as his public defender in 2024 did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. Arias-Hierro was taken by ICE earlier this month.
Immigration officials said in a court filing Thursday that Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones was sentenced to 15 years in prison being convicted of arson in 2008 in Florida.
Additional convictions for drug trafficking, being a felon in possession of a weapon, and possession of drug paraphernalia followed, said Charles, ICE's assistant director of field operations, in a statement filed in court. In 2022, he was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and sentenced to four years in prison, the document shows.
Charles’ declaration did not say if Rodriguez-Quinones was ever seen by an immigration judge. He was arrested by ICE last month.
A Mexican man was also placed on the deportation flight. Immigration officials say Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez was recently “identified as and admitted to being a member of a criminal organization.” The Department of Homeland Security says Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
An immigration judge ordered him deported to Mexico in 2005, and Munoz-Gutierrez waived his appeal, court records show.
It was unclear why he would be flown to South Sudan or beyond when Mexico is just south of the United States.
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Associated Press writers Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
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