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 decided they cannot be sent back without having a chance to argue against it in court.

There is a legal fight because the Trump government wants to quickly deport many people. This includes sending them to countries where they are not citizens. A very debated example is sending people from Venezuela to a well-known prison in El Salvador.

Sending people removed from the United States to Libya, a country known for treating migrants badly, would be a big step in the government's plan to have other countries accept them.

On Wednesday, a U.S. official said there were plans to fly migrants to Libya using a military plane. However, the official did not know exactly when the C-17 plane would leave. The official did not want to be named because they were talking about military plans.

Immigration lawyers say that immigration officers told some of their clients, like people from Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines, that they would be sent back to Libya. Some clients were told they would go to Saudi Arabia, the lawyers said.

Immigration officers in south Texas gathered six people they were holding on Tuesday morning. According to their lawyers, the officers asked them to sign a paper saying they agreed to be sent back to Libya. This was reported by the families of the people being held.

The lawyers wrote that when everyone refused, they were put in separate rooms and kept alone to make them sign it.

For example, a lawyer for a man from the Philippines told ICE in San Antonio that his client was afraid of being sent to Libya and needed to talk to someone before being sent there.

The judge said that immigrants must be allowed to argue against being sent away.

The lawyers went to court on Wednesday and asked Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts to help. Judge Murphy is in charge of a court case against the Trump government because they were sending people to countries they were not from.

He decided in March that people cannot be sent away from their country, even if they have used all other legal options, until they have a real chance to show that it would put them in danger.

On Wednesday, he stated that sending people to Libya soon would clearly break the court's rule. He also told the government to give information about the claims.

Besides sending Venezuelans to El Salvador, the government has also sent people to Panama and Costa Rica, even though they were not from those countries.

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

Besides those three Central American countries, the Trump government said it is thinking about other countries to send people back to. When asked on Wednesday if Libya was one of these countries, the government did not say much.

President Donald Trump told the Department of Homeland Security to answer questions. During a press conference in Illinois, the head of the DHS, Kristi Noem, stated she could not prove media stories about plans to send people to Libya.

The government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, said on Wednesday that they had no agreement or worked with the U.S. to take migrants. But they said that other groups might have agreed to take them.

This seems to be about the government in eastern Libya, which is led by strong military leader Khalifa Hifter. Libya has been divided for years, with different governments in the east and west. Both sides have the support of armed groups and other countries.

The Libya National Army, led by Hifter, controls eastern and southern Libya. They also released a statement saying they had not agreed to receive migrants from the U.S.

"They (the migrants) will not be allowed into the areas controlled by the Libyan army, no matter the reasons," it said.

Many reports show that migrants held in Libya have been treated badly. UN investigators say they have evidence of possible very serious crimes against humanity, such as murder, torture, forcing people into slavery, illegal killings, and rape.

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