Lawyers said on Wednesday that US officials told some migrants they would be sent back to Libya. The migrants are not from Libya, and the country has a history of human rights problems. A judge said they cannot be sent back without a chance to argue against it in court.

Legal problems are happening because the Trump government wants to deport many people. They are even trying to send migrants to countries where they are not citizens. A very controversial example of sending people to a third country is sending Venezuelans to a well-known prison in El Salvador.

Sending people who are being deported to Libya, a country known for treating migrants badly, would be a significant step up in the government's effort to have other countries accept people removed from the United States.

A US official said on Wednesday that there were plans to fly migrants to Libya on a military plane. However, the official did not know exactly when the C-17 flight would happen. The official did not want their name used because they were discussing military operations.

Lawyers who help people with immigration issues say that some of their clients, including people from Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines, were told by immigration officers that they would be sent to Libya. They also said some clients were told they would go to Saudi Arabia.

Lawyers and family members said that immigration officers in southern Texas brought together six people who were being held and told them they had to sign a paper agreeing to be sent back to Libya.

The lawyers wrote that when everyone refused, they were each put in a separate room and had their hands tied to make them sign it.

For example, a lawyer for a man from the Philippines told ICE that his client was afraid of being sent to Libya. He said his client needed an interview before they sent him away.

The judge said that immigrants must have a chance to fight being sent away.

The lawyers went to court on Wednesday and asked Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts to get involved. Judge Murphy is managing a case against the Trump government about sending people to countries where they are not citizens.

He decided in March that people cannot be sent away from their country, even if they have used all their legal options, until they have a real chance to explain why it would be dangerous for them.

On Wednesday, he said that sending people back to Libya very soon, as some had suggested, would definitely go against the Court's order. He also told the government to provide details about these claims.

The government sent Venezuelans to El Salvador. They also sent people to Panama and Costa Rica who were not citizens of those countries.

Sending someone to a country that is not their own has caused many questions about fair treatment, especially in the case of El Salvador, about whether they will be treated badly again.

Besides these three countries, the Trump government said it is looking at other nations to send people back to. When asked on Wednesday if Libya was one of these, the government did not say much.

President Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security questions. The head of the department said she could not confirm reports about sending people to Libya.

The government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, said on Wednesday that they did not have a deal or plan with the U.S. to take in migrants. But they said that 'some other groups' might have agreed to take them in.

This seems to be about its competitor government in eastern Libya, which is led by strong military leader Khalifa Hifter. For years, Libya has been divided between competing governments in the east and west, with armed groups and foreign countries supporting each one.

The army led by Hifter, which controls eastern and southern Libya, also said they had not agreed to take migrants from the U.S.

The Libyan Armed Forces said they will not let migrants enter the areas they control, no matter the reason.

There is a lot of evidence of mistreatment of migrants held in Libya. UN investigators say they have found evidence of serious crimes, such as murder, torture, forcing people into slavery, killing people without a trial, and rape.

Migrants told The Associated Press they were often beaten and hurt while their families had to pay money for their release. Their bodies had signs of old and new injuries, like marks from bullets and knives on their backs, legs, arms, and faces.