A federal court ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to maintain custody of migrants on a deportation flight that immigrants’ lawyers said was headed to South Sudan, a transfer the judge said appeared to violate an injunction he issued in April.

“I am not going to order that the plane turn around,” said Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court in Boston. Instead, he said, any migrants in Department of Homeland Security custody must not leave U.S. control once the plane landed, at least until a hearing Wednesday to determine whether they had received adequate due process.

The order capped a tumultuous hearing hastily called by the judge, during which Trump officials said they could not say where the flight was or where it was going.

Murphy repeatedly expressed concerns that the administration had violated his order not to deport immigrants to countries where they are not from and may face danger without giving them enough time to challenge their removal. And he warned that officials involved in the deportations who were aware of his order, including potentially the pilots of the plane, could face criminal sanctions. “Based on what I have been told,” he said, “this seems like it may be contempt.”

The question of whether the Trump administration defied his previous order added to the remarkable series of faceoffs it has had with the judicial system as President Donald Trump has aggressively pursued his promises of mass deportations. In case after case, judges have rebuked the administration for not allowing adequate due process, and Trump officials in turn have questioned the authority of courts to hear such disputes and even called for the impeachment of judges who rule against it.

Immigration lawyers at the hearing Tuesday said at least two migrants had been told they were going to be deported to South Sudan, a violence-plagued country in Africa that the State Department advises Americans not to travel to.

After a break in the proceedings to gather information, a lawyer for the Justice Department, Elianis N. Perez, said that one of the migrants, who is Burmese, was returned home to Myanmar, not South Sudan. But she declined to say where the second migrant, a Vietnamese man, was deported, saying it was classified information. It was unclear how many other migrants might be on that deportation flight.

‘Voluntary deportations’ include 68 immigrants

The United States on Monday sent 68 immigrants from Honduras and Colombia back to their countries, the first government-funded flight of what the Trump administration is calling voluntary deportations.

In the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, 38 Hondurans, including 19 children, disembarked from the charter flight carrying $1,000 debit cards from the U.S. government and the offer to one day be allowed to apply for legal entry into the U.S.

Twenty-six more migrants aboard the flight were headed home to Colombia, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement.

President Donald Trump has promised to increase deportations substantially. Experts believe the self-deportation offer will only appeal to a small portion of migrants already considering return, but unlikely to spur high demand.

Patel closes FBI office overseeing surveillance

FBI Director Kash Patel has closed an internal watchdog office established in 2020 to uncover and reduce the risk of misuses of national security surveillance, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The elimination of the unit, the Office of Internal Auditing, comes as Congress debates whether to reauthorize a high-profile warrantless wiretapping law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. That law, which was a chief focus of the office, nearly collapsed last year before lawmakers extended it until April 2026.

The move is significant because it could give skeptics of the program new ammunition to argue that Congress should sharply curtail the law or even let it expire given that a guardrail has been discarded. It also poses a crucial test for Patel, who rose in pro-Trump circles by attacking the FBI over its abuses of the surveillance law but said during his confirmation hearing that he saw the program as a vital tool for gathering foreign intelligence and protecting national security.

IRS nominee grilled in Senate hearing

A former congressman who sponsored legislation to abolish the IRS and is now the nominee to lead that agency faced pointed questions from senators Tuesday about his past promotion of questionable tax credits, his lack of background in tax administration and the political contributions he received after being picked to lead the agency.

Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri appeared before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing. He was grilled by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who questioned whether Long believed the president could legally direct the IRS to take away a taxpayer’s tax-exempt status.

Her questions came as President Donald Trump, a Republican, has said he wants Harvard University and other nonprofit organizations to lose their tax-exempt status. Federal law prohibits the executive branch from exerting influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations.

“I’m going to follow the law,” Long said, adding “I’d have to go to the lawyers,” to interpret the law.

“What do you understand this law to be saying?” Warren asked. Long said he would not be able to answer. After the back and forth, Warren told Long, “You shouldn’t be within a thousand miles of the directorship of the IRS.”

At hearing, Rubio defends foreign policies

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Democratic senators sparred Tuesday over the Trump administration’s foreign policies, ranging from Ukraine and Russia to the Middle East, Latin America, the slashing of the U.S. foreign assistance budget and refugee admissions.

Rubio defended the administration’s decisions to his former colleagues during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, his first since being confirmed on President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day.

He said “America is back” and claimed four months of foreign-policy achievements, even as many of them remain frustratingly inconclusive. Among them are the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran, efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine into peace talks and efforts to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

America’s top diplomat praised agreements with El Salvador and other Latin American countries to accept migrant deportees, saying “secure borders, safe communities and zero tolerance for criminal cartels are once again the guiding principles of our foreign policy.”

He also rejected assertions that massive cuts to his department’s budget would hurt America’s standing abroad.

Chicago investigated after mayor’s remarks

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into hiring practices at the city of Chicago, according to a letter shared on social media and sent to the Chicago mayor’s office.

The probes announcement Monday came a day after Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke at a Chicago church to outline his vision for the remainder of his term. During the speech, Johnson praised the number of Black people in top positions in his administration. The speech garnered immediate attention on social media, including calls from conservatives and others to investigate.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division shared its investigation notice Monday, citing Johnson’s comments to the congregation Sunday as the trigger for a pattern or practice investigation into whether the city has habitually violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.

Cryptocurrency bill revived in Senate

The Senate on Monday revived a first-of-its-kind bill to regulate parts of the cryptocurrency industry, after a small number of Democrats who had joined the rest of their party in blocking the measure joined Republicans in allowing it to advance.

The vote was 66-32 to move forward with the legislation, which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to the value of an existing asset, often the U.S. dollar. Sixteen Democrats joined the majority of Republicans in support, acting over the opposition of most others in their party, who were concerned that President Donald Trump and his family were inappropriately profiting from crypto.

The vote was a victory for the cryptocurrency industry, which has made significant advances in Washington with the backing of Trump and a bipartisan group of lawmakers. It suggested that the measure would have enough support to pass the Senate and make it to Trump’s desk in short order. A parallel effort in the House has faced similar backlash from Democrats, who this month blocked a hearing on the legislation but are unlikely to have the votes to prevent it from passing.

Hegseth orders review of Afghanistan exit

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered another review of the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed American troops and Afghans.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly blasted the Biden administration for the withdrawal, which Hegseth said Tuesday was “disastrous and embarrassing.” He said the new review will interview witnesses, analyze the decision-making and “get the truth.”

There have already been multiple reviews of the withdrawal by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the State Department and Congress, which have involved hundreds of interviews and studies of videos, photographs and other footage and data. It’s unclear what specific new information the new review is seeking.

— News service reports