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 Mexico and Vietnam. They had lived in various places from California to Iowa, Nebraska to Florida, with one serving a sentence of nearly 30 years.

An attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to transfer migrants to South Sudan violated a judicial order not to send deportees to countries other than their own without opportunity to contest their removal,

Immigration authorities refused to say what their final destinations would be, but said their home countries had refused to receive the migrants.