Credit: Star Tribune

Twin Cities attorneys are scrambling to block the deportation of a group of Somalis said to be slated for a federal flight to Africa this week — the government’s first such attempt since a botched deportation effort in December that led to a legal battle.

Attorneys for some of the detainees say at least a dozen Minnesota Somalis are part of a larger group under detention in Texas, where guards have said they will be placed on a chartered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight to South Sudan as early as Thursday.