() The Trump administration is escalating a high-stakes standoff with a federal judge over eight migrants deported to South Sudan, despite multiple court orders attempting to stop their removal.

The Department of Homeland Security deported eight criminals in the United States illegally on a plane bound for South Sudan last week.

The men hail from various countries, including Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, and Mexico. Only one is from South Sudan.

However, after takeoff, Judge Brian Murphy ruled the deportations were rushed and that the men needed more time to argue their case. Judge Murphy ordered that the criminals remain in U.S. custody.

“We conducted a deportation flight from Texas. To remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States. No country on Earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said this week.

The Trump-backed Department of Justice is now asking the judge to reverse that decision. The Justice Department argues federal courts cannot direct the conduct of foreign policy, and the ruling is impeding the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.

On Friday, DHS released the rap sheets for all eight men, calling them “barbaric” and blasting the judge for protecting violent criminals.

The records detail convictions for rape, child abuse, armed robbery, and multiple murders with several sentenced to life in prison.

“The American public should know the heinous crimes of these murderers, rapists, and pedophiles that this activist district court judge is trying to bring back to American soil,” McLaughlin added in a media conference.

The eight migrants are now being held on a U.S. military base in Djibouti, though their circumstances are unknown.

The administration argues that flights to countries like South Sudan are necessary because many of the deportees’ home countries won’t accept them.

spoke with one of the attorneys representing the migrants, who has a very different view of how the government is handling their cases.

“At this moment in time, I don’t even know where my client actually is,” Jonathan Ryan, attorney for one of the men, told .

“If he is ultimately deported under the law, then that’s one matter. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about here is someone who has been ‘disappeared’ without following legal procedures to an unknown location,” he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also weighed in, telling the court that the judge’s ruling would cause significant and irreparable harm to U.S. foreign policy.

Judge Murphy has yet to rule on the DOJ’s latest request, but during earlier hearings, the judge said that the Trump administration unquestionably violated his court order. Whether that leads to contempt charges remains to be seen.