The United States once cheered the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Now the U.S. is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam to a chaotic country that's once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration authorities appear to have begun deporting migrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order on removals to third countries, attorneys for the migrants said Tuesday. Up to a dozen people from several countries may have been deported to Africa, immigration rights lawyers told a judge.