A Pierce County man expected to be deported to Vietnam. Instead, ICE routed him to South Sudan

A Pierce County man is one of a handful of immigrants who were put on a deportation flight to South Sudan last week.

His deportation is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants to “third countries" — places other than the immigrants’ country of origin.

In this case, Tuan Phan had legal permanent residential status in the U.S., his wife Ngoc Phan said. But a criminal conviction in his teens led to him losing his legal status, ultimately landing him on the flight to South Sudan.

Tuan Phan had been in prison in Washington state for the last 25 years for murder and assault, his wife said.

When Phan finished serving his time in March, federal agents with ICE took him into custody. He had a standing deportation order because of his conviction.

Phan was taken to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma and then to a Texas immigration lockup. There, his family prepared for his expected deportation to Vietnam with a suitcase of clothing and a cell phone for him once he was deported.

“We'd accepted it," Ngoc Phan said. "We planned for it."

Her husband would call her from the Texas immigration lockup in the morning before she went to work so they could sort out their next steps. That included signing and submitting documents for his deportation to Vietnam, Ngoc Phan said.

ICE has not responded to KUOW’s requests for comment about Tuan’s deportation. In previous years, Vietnam has taken in people deported to the country at a restricted level if those people arrived in the U.S. before 1995, according to Asian American civil rights groups and the Asian Law Caucus.

Tuan Phan came to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1991, at the age of 9, with legal permanent residence., Ngoc Phan said. The couple was planning to start a new life in Vietnam once Tuan was released from prison and deported to his home country.

Ngoc coordinated with family members to pick him up after he landed in Vietnam. It was supposed to be the beginning of a 3- to 5-year plan for the couple, she said.

But the suitcase, the phone, the pickup, the new life in Vietnam wasn’t going to happen. Someone from “higher up” in the chain of command at ICE had a different plan.

“We were looking forward to it, you know?” Ngoc Phan said. “Then in the middle of the night, they picked him up and sent him to South Sudan.”

In the day leading up to Tuan Phan being deported, ICE agents rounded him and others up and gave them updates on where they’d be deported, Ngoc Phan said. First it was South Africa, but then immigration officials told them they would be sent to South Sudan. Both times Ngoc Phan said her husband protested.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory, urging people to not travel to South Sudan. If they did, the department recommended travelers write up a will, discuss funeral plans, and plan for potential kidnapping and extortion.

Given the political situation and the potential danger to foreigners in South Sudan, Ngoc Phan is worried for her husband.

“It's just so outrageous that I'm scared," she said. "But at the same time, it's like, you don't want to believe it, because, legally, how can they do that?”

In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security wrote the deportation flight Tuan Phan and others were on was part of President Donald Trump's deportation efforts targeting people with criminal convictions — characterizing the deportees as “some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States.”

Phan was legally present in the U.S., but was given an order of deportation during his prison sentence because of his assault and murder conviction.

“We are removing these convicted criminals from American soil so they can never hurt another American victim,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the release naming Phan.

NPR reports that Phan and others are now being held at a U.S. military base in the African country of Djibouti.

That’s after a judge intervened, saying the Trump administration had defied a court order that mandated deportees be given the chance to be in front of a judge to object to their deportation and demonstrate they have a credible fear for their own safety in being deported to a country, especially one that isn’t their own.

McLaughlin called that ruling “absurd.”

“An activist judge is trying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters who present a clear and present threat to the safety of the American people,” she said.

Lawyers from the Seattle area plan to speak with Tuan and the group of deportees the Trump administration attempted to send to South Sudan. They plan to prepare them for their “credible fear” interviews in front of a judge.

“They're playing games with these people's lives,” said Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

The group is part of a lawsuit pushing back on the Trump administration for deporting people to “third countries" without the opportunity to make their case before a judge.

“They're trying to demonize this group,” Adams said. “But does that abdicate the government of any responsibility itself to comply with the law?”

Adams questioned whether the government has a right to destroy the lives of people and their families if those people were convicted of a crime, even after they’ve served their sentence.

“It's just a complete renunciation of our justice system, all in the name of this propaganda, this anti-immigrant agenda of the administration,” he said.

Last Tuesday, Ngoc Phan was waiting for a call when she realized her husband had likely been sent to South Sudan overnight.

Sitting in her car that Tuesday morning outside of work, she reached out to an immigration official managing her husband’s case.

In text messages Phan shared with KUOW, the officer admitted they hadn’t submitted her husband’s deportation documents to Vietnam yet, and they didn’t have any information on where he was.

“None of my supervisors even know what is going on with him,” the officer texted.

Phan still hasn’t heard from her husband since he was flown to South Sudan.