SEATTLE — The family of a man who grew up in Tacoma and has become one of the faces of President Donald Trump's efforts to deport immigrants to countries where they have no ties is urging Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson to intervene.

Tuan Thanh Phan, a Vietnamese national, was detained in March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents immediately after he was released from a state prison, having finished serving a 25-year sentence for first-degree murder and second-degree assault.

Family members thought Phan would be deported to Vietnam. Instead, in May, he and seven other men were placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan, sparking national outcry and legal challenges. That plane was rerouted mid-trip to a U.S. military base in Djibouti, after a federal judge ordered the group of immigrants must be given an opportunity to challenge the government’s plan to deport them.

Left in limbo as their legal challenge proceeds, Phan and the other deportees are languishing in a converted shipping container, according to his wife, Ngoc Phan. She speaks with her husband for five minutes every three days, she said, keeping him apprised of his legal team's efforts to prevent the Trump administration's plan to send him and others to South Sudan.

“His life is on the line right now,” Ngoc Phan said Wednesday outside a Downtown Seattle building where the governor has an office.

Adding urgency to his case is a Monday ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for the federal government to continue deporting immigrants to so-called “third countries” — places other than the immigrants’ countries of origin not listed on their original deportation orders and where they have no previous ties.

Tuan Thanh Phan and his family came to the U.S. from Vietnam as refugees when he was 9 years old in 1991, settling in Tacoma as legal permanent residents.

In 2000, when Tuan Thanh Phan was 18 years old, he was assaulted by a group of strangers in a park, his wife said. He fired a gun in self-defense, she said. On the advice of his attorney, he accepted a plea deal for 25 years in prison, Ngoc Phan said, but he was never told of the immigration consequences of his plea.

His family had long believed he would be allowed to return home in March after completing his sentence. But after he was detained by ICE agents and brought to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, they learned he had lost his lawful permanent residence status and was given a deportation order in 2009.

Ngoc Phan said family members then expected Tuan Thanh Phan would be deported to Vietnam, and began working with immigration officials to prepare his luggage for when he landed there. Instead, Tuan Thanh Phan was transferred to a detention center in Texas. In May, he was told by immigration officials he would be placed on a plane headed to South Sudan.

“I was like, ‘They can’t do that, that’s illegal,’ ” Ngoc Phan said when she learned of the removal plan. “We have laws and rules in this country, right? It's really shocking just trying to digest it all. Even now, we have a hard time understanding what's going on.”

On Wednesday, organizers behind the Bring Tuan Home campaign filed emergency pardon applications to the state’s Clemency and Pardons Board and to Ferguson’s office, seeking a full and unconditional pardon. ACLU of Washington and more than 50 elected officials in the state have sent letters to the governor supporting his pardon petition.

Tuan Thanh Phan’s family and community advocates said a pardon would allow him to reopen his deportation case and dismiss it, paving the way for him to ultimately reinstate his legal permanent residency status and fly back to the U.S.

The board has the ability to expedite its review process, though the governor can issue pardons without a recommendation, as Gov. Jay Inslee did in 2018 for Cambodians facing deportation.

Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for the governor, said a member of his office met with Ngoc Phan and her lawyers last week.

The governor has been fully briefed on that meeting, and has asked his legal team to investigate whether, or to what extent, a pardon would help in Mr. Phan’s situation, Aho said in an email.

Led by Ngoc Phan, a group of rallygoers entered the Downtown Seattle building’s lobby Wednesday demanding to meet with Ferguson. Building security turned away the group, saying the governor was not in the building.

“Governor Ferguson is the one person who has the power right now to try to level the playing field for Tuan to get back home to his loved ones and to his community,” said Savannah Son, an organizer with Khmer Anti-Deportation and Advocacy Group, at Wednesday’s rally.

Since Trump returned to office, many immigrants with convictions have been seeking pardons as a way to plead their case to stay in the country. Many are people who came to the country legally as children and refugees, and who committed crimes as young adults growing up in poverty.

The state Clemency and Pardons Board is set to expand in an effort to review more cases. Under a new law passed this year, the board may consider expediting a petition if the person has a pending deportation order or deportation proceeding.

Ngoc Phan and advocates are also urging Ferguson to change a state law that allows state prisons to notify ICE about release dates of immigrants. The state’s Keep Washington Working Act limits the ability of local police agencies and jails to participate in federal immigration enforcement, but has an exception for the Department of Corrections.

The Trump administration has been working with several countries to accept expelled immigrants from the U.S. regardless of their country of origin, with federal officials arguing the deportations are necessary to remove the “worst of the worst.”

In recent months, hundreds of immigrants have been sent to or are expected to be sent to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Libya and other countries under third country removals. None of the roughly 200 people sent to Costa Rica in February had a security flag, according to Costa Rican officials, and about 80 were children.

Angelica Chazaro, a University of Washington School of Law professor who filed the pardon applications on Tuan Thanh Phan’s behalf, said she believes the president deported the immigrants to South Sudan for “spectacle” rather than because of pushback from their home countries.

“It feels like a return to a medieval form of punishment,” Chazaro said. “This is him experimenting on pushing the boundaries (on) the kinds of cruelty that can be enacted on immigrant communities.”

Both the Trump administration and lawyers for the immigrants are seeking clarity on whether the Supreme Court ruling applies to the group of eight men in Djibouti, whose deportations were at the time covered by the federal judge’s previous injunction.

Ngoc Phan and advocates said they fear Tuan Thanh Phan and the other immigrants may be tortured or killed if they are sent to South Sudan, a country ravaged by rising violence and on the brink of civil war, according to U.N. officials.

Shomya Tripathy, another organizer with the Bring Tuan Home campaign, said the Trump administration’s third country deportations of immigrants with criminal convictions represents a slippery slope of “unchecked immigration enforcement power.”

“They're less likely to face political backlash (but) it essentially removes guardrails for future deportations,” Tripathy said. “It's a classic situation of, ‘If you don't fight for all your community members now, they will come for you too.’ ”

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