A countdown is on for a plane of eight immigration detainees to be flown from a US Naval base in Djibouti to the war-torn country of South Sudan tonight. Lawyers for the migrants are rushing to a federal court in Massachusetts Friday afternoon to try to block the plane from taking off.

A federal judge in Washington is temporarily blocking the deportation of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan the day after the Supreme Court permitted it to go forward.

U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss issued an administrative stay Friday morning temporarily blocking the deportations in response to a lawsuit filed late Thursday night on behalf of the eight men, who have spent the last six weeks in a shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti amid a legal tug-of-war over their fate.