Latest news with #DeportationDataProject
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Trump admin arresting more migrants with no criminal records amid crackdown
President Donald Trump, who has vowed to target the 'worst of the worst' in his mass deportation campaign, is overseeing a crackdown that's increasingly ensnaring foreigners without US criminal records. The Trump administration got off to a quick start in ramping up immigration arrests, but the numbers plateaued and briefly dipped in the spring. (AP) About 37% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in July were of people with no US criminal convictions or pending charges, according to federal data compiled by the University of California at Berkeley's Deportation Data Project and updated this week. That's up from 13% in December, the last full month of Joe Biden's presidency. 'It's impossible both to have mass deportations and to concentrate deportations on the worst of the worst,' said David Hausman, a law professor and faculty director of the Deportation Data Project. Despite the rising share of arrests of people with no US criminal records, the data also shows that the Trump administration is arresting a lot more immigrants overall — including those with US criminal convictions or pending charges. Arrests of such people more than doubled to about 92,000 during Trump's first six months in office compared with the final half-year of the Biden administration. The information from the Deportation Data Project includes criminal convictions and charges in the US. The Department of Homeland Security has said that agents are also capturing people accused of crimes in other countries. The agency regularly posts on social media about criminal arrests, sometimes highlighting foreign allegations while rarely providing details of those cases. 'Many of the individuals that are counted as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more,' said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS. 'They just don't have a rap sheet in the US.' The Trump administration got off to a quick start in ramping up immigration arrests, but the numbers plateaued and briefly dipped in the spring. In late May, the tally surged after a meeting in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered ICE officials to make at least 3,000 arrests a day. While the Justice Department has denied there's an arrest quota, ICE is stepping up enforcement. Armed with more than $150 billion in newly approved border and enforcement funding, the administration is pushing ahead on plans to add detention beds and recruit thousands of new ICE officers. For now, however, while Trump has ramped up arrests of criminals, his dragnet is also sweeping up even more people who have never been convicted of a crime in the US. Such people accounted for a little more than 60% of ICE arrests during his first six months in office, up from 44% during Biden's last six months as president. Of convicts arrested under Trump, the most serious crime for 8% involved homicide and manslaughter; human trafficking and alien smuggling; or rape and other sex crimes. The comparable number for Biden's last six months was 10%. For both presidents, about 58% of the arrested convicts' most-serious crimes were driving under the influence; assault, battery and the like; drug offenses; and criminal immigration violations.
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
ICE Arrests of Migrants Without Criminal Records Surge Nearly 200 Percent
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A far larger share of non‑criminal migrants have been arrested as part of the Trump administration's expanded immigration enforcement campaign, according to new federal and independent data. The director of the Deportation Data Project told Newsweek that he found it "impossible" for the president to keep his promise of mass deportations of "criminals." Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, however, told Newsweek, in part, "It is not an accurate description to say they are 'non-criminals.' This deceptive categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public. Let us remind you that being here illegally is in fact a crime (8 USC 1325)." Why It Matters President Donald Trump emphasized a prioritization of the removal of violent offenders and the "worst of the worst" during his presidential campaign; however, data shows growing arrests of people without U.S. criminal charges or convictions, raising legal and policy questions about resources, detention capacity and humanitarian oversight. Recent cases involving nonviolent immigrants lacking criminal records have exacerbated concerns and led to broader discussions of whether immigrants, in certain instances, who lack citizenship but have abided by all other U.S. laws, should be removed. NYPD officers arrest protestors for blocking traffic on Broadway as they protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside of the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on August 08, 2025, in New York City. NYPD officers arrest protestors for blocking traffic on Broadway as they protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside of the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on August 08, 2025, in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images What To Know Federal and independent datasets show that ICE arrested substantially more people overall during the Trump administration's first six months in office than during the final six months of the Biden administration. Researchers at the the University of California at Berkeley's Deportation Data Project, which compiles federal data, found that roughly 37 percent of ICE arrests in July 2025 were of people with no U.S. criminal convictions or pending charges—doubling to about 92,000 during the first six months of the Trump administration compared with the final half‑year of the Joe Biden administration. That 37 percent figure is up from 13 percent during Biden's last full month in office in December. "As the [Trump] administration increases immigration arrests, it will inevitably sweep in many people with no criminal record," Davis Hausman, a law professor and faculty director of the Deportation Data Project, told Newsweek via email on Thursday. "There just aren't many noncitizens with criminal records, so the promise of mass deportations of criminals is an impossible one to keep." The Trump administration has dramatically increased arrests of people who have never been convicted of a crime in the US, accounting for a little more than 60 percent of ICE arrests during his first six months in office, roughly equating to 188 days, compared to the 44 percent of arrests during Biden's last six months as president. Of the Trump administration's approximate 132,485 arrests, 39 percent had criminal convictions; 31 percent had criminal charges pending; and 30 percent had no criminal charges. In comparison, the Biden administration's approximate 52,334 arrests included 56 percent with criminal convictions, 28 percent with pending criminal charges, and 16 percent with no criminal charges. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, told Newsweek via email that the Deportation Data Project "is being cherry peddle a false narrative." Multiple independent analyses and reporting showed the detention population rose to record levels in June and July, with estimates of roughly 55,000 to 59,000 people held in ICE facilities during late June and July, according to The Guardian—noting that ICE arrests have more than doubled in 38 states and are most prevalent in states with large immigrant populations including California, Florida and Texas. Southern and western states that have embraced Trump's agenda have also experienced higher arrests. During a White House meeting in May, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller urged ICE agents to aim for as many as 3,000 arrests per day. A recent case involving a Chinese immigrant and small-business restaurant owner, Kelly Yu, in Arizona has led to bipartisan calls for her release from ICE detainment. DHS has refuted statements in her defense. "Lai Kuen Yu, an illegal alien from Hong Kong, has had a final deportation order from a judge since 2005," Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, told Newsweek via email. "She was arrested illegally crossing the border by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona on February 4, 2004, and two days later was released into the country." DHS said that in November 2013, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her appeal and upheld her final order of removal. On August 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied her appeal. On June 12 of this year, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted her a temporary stay of removal while it considers her motion to reopen. She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal proceedings. "ICE does not deport U.S. citizens," McLaughlin said. "It's her choice. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with someone the parent designates." What People Are Saying Davis Hausman, a law professor and faculty director of the Deportation Data Project, told Newsweek via email on Thursday: "As the [Trump] administration increases immigration arrests, it will inevitably sweep in many people with no criminal record. There just aren't many noncitizens with criminal records, so the promise of mass deportations of criminals is an impossible one to keep." Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, told Newsweek via email on Thursday: "This data is being cherry picked by the Deportation Data Project to peddle a false narrative. Many of the individuals that are counted as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S. Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally. "It is not an accurate description to say they are 'non-criminals.' This deceptive categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public. Let us remind you that being here illegally is in fact a crime (8 USC 1325). We are putting the American people first by removing illegal aliens who pose a threat to our communities." What Happens Next Lawmakers have sent oversight letters raising priority questions for enforcement, and legal groups filed suits challenging arrests at courthouses and expanded detention practices, indicating litigation and hearings were likely to follow. The administration has sought expanded detention capacity and funding to sustain higher arrest rates, with federal budget allocations and proposals under discussion as the enforcement campaign continues.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Trump crackdown snares more migrants with no US criminal records
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Federal agents stalk immigration courts as they try to meet deportation quotas set by the White House. WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to target the 'worst of the worst' in his mass deportation campaign, is overseeing a crackdown that is increasingly ensnaring foreigners without criminal records. About 37 per cent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in July were of people with no US criminal convictions or pending charges, according to federal data compiled by the University of California at Berkeley's Deportation Data Project and updated this week. That was up from 13 per cent in December, the last full month of Mr Joe Biden's presidency. 'It's impossible both to have mass deportations and to concentrate deportations on the worst of the worst,' said Professor David Hausman, faculty director of the Deportation Data Project. Despite the rising share of arrests of people with no US criminal records, the data also shows that the Trump administration is arresting a lot more immigrants overall, including those with US criminal convictions or pending charges. Arrests of such people more than doubled to about 92,000 during Mr Trump's first six months in office compared with the final half-year of the Biden administration. The information from the Deportation Data Project includes criminal convictions and charges in the United States. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 100 people being investigated for vape offences, say MOH and HSA Singapore Bukit Merah fire: Residents relocated as town council carries out restoration works Singapore askST: What to do in the event of a fire at home Singapore Jalan Bukit Merah fire: PMD battery could have started fatal blaze, says SCDF Singapore askST: What are the fire safety rules for PMDs? Asia AirAsia flight from KL to Incheon lands at wrong airport in South Korea Opinion Could telco consolidation spell the end of attractive mobile plans? Singapore From quiet introvert to self-confident student: How this vulnerable, shy teen gets help to develop and discover her strength The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said agents are also capturing people accused of crimes in other countries. The agency regularly posts on social media about criminal arrests, sometimes highlighting foreign allegations while rarely providing details of those cases. 'Many of the individuals that are counted as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more,' said Ms Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS. 'They just don't have a rap sheet in the US.' Trump v. Biden numbers The Trump administration got off to a quick start in ramping up immigration arrests, but the numbers plateaued and briefly dipped from March to May. In late May, the tally surged after a meeting in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered ICE officials to make at least 3,000 arrests a day . While the Justice Department has denied there is an arrest quota, ICE is stepping up enforcement. Armed with more than US$150 billion (S$192 billion) in newly approved border and enforcement funding, the administration is pushing ahead on plans to add detention beds and recruit thousands of new ICE officers. For now, however, while Mr Trump has ramped up arrests of criminals, his dragnet is also sweeping up even more people who have never been convicted of a crime in the US. Such people accounted for a little more than 60 per cent of ICE arrests during his first six months in office, up from 44 per cent during Mr Biden's last six months as president. Of convicts arrested under Mr Trump, the most serious crime for 8 per cent involved homicide and manslaughter; human trafficking and alien smuggling; or rape and other sex crimes. The comparable number for Mr Biden's last six months was 10 per cent. For both presidents, about 58 per cent of the arrested convicts' most-serious crimes were driving under the influence; assault, battery and the like; drug offences; and criminal immigration violations. BLOOMBERG
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
California took center stage in ICE raids, but other states saw more immigration arrests
Ever since federal immigration raids ramped up across California, triggering fierce protests that prompted President Trump to deploy troops to Los Angeles, the state has emerged as the symbolic battleground of the administration's deportation campaign. But even as arrests soared, California was not the epicenter of Trump's anti-immigrant project. In the first five months of Trump's second term, California lagged behind the staunchly red states of Texas and Florida in the total arrests. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data from the Deportation Data Project, Texas reported 26,341 arrests — nearly a quarter of all ICE arrests nationally — followed by 12,982 in Florida and 8,460 in California. Even in June, when masked federal immigration agents swept through L.A., jumping out of vehicles to snatch people from bus stops, car washes and parking lots, California saw 3,391 undocumented immigrants arrested — more than Florida, but still only about half as many as Texas. When factoring in population, California drops to 27th in the nation, with 217 arrests per million residents — about a quarter of Texas' 864 arrests per million and less than half of a whole slew of states including Florida, Arkansas, Utah, Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Nevada. The data, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government, excludes arrests made after June 26 and lacks identifying state details in 5% of cases. Nevertheless, it provides the most detailed look yet of national ICE operations. Immigration experts say it is not surprising that California — home to the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the nation and the birthplace of the Chicano movement — lags behind Republican states in the total number of arrests or arrests as a percentage of the population. 'The numbers are secondary to the performative politics of the moment,' said Austin Kocher, a geographer and research assistant professor at Syracuse University who specializes in immigration enforcement. Part of the reason Republican-dominated states have higher arrest numbers — particularly when measured against population — is they have a longer history of working directly with ICE, and a stronger interest in collaboration. In red states from Texas to Mississippi, local law enforcement officers routinely cooperate with federal agents, either by taking on ICE duties through so-called 287(g) agreements or by identifying undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated and letting ICE into their jails and prisons. Indeed, data show that just 7% of ICE arrests made this year in California were made through the Criminal Alien Program, an initiative that requests that local law enforcement identify undocumented immigrants in federal, state and local prisons and jails. That's significantly lower than the 55% of arrests in Texas and 46% in Florida made through prisons or jails. And other conservative states with smaller populations relied on the program even more heavily: 75% of ICE arrests in Alabama and 71% in Indiana took place via prisons and jails. 'State cooperation has been an important buffer in ICE arrests and ICE operations in general for years,' said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a Sacramento-based senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 'We've seen that states are not only willing to cooperate with ICE, but are proactively now establishing 287(g) agreements with their local law enforcement, are naturally going to cast a wider net of enforcement in the boundaries of that state.' While California considers only some criminal offenses, such as serious felonies, significant enough to share information with ICE; Texas and Florida are more likely to report offenses that may not be as severe, such as minor traffic infractions. Still, even if fewer people were arrested in California than other states, it also witnessed one of the most dramatic increases in arrests in the country. California ranked 30th in ICE arrests per million in February. By June, the state had climbed to 10th place. ICE arrested around 8,460 immigrants across California between Jan. 20 and June 26, a 212% increase compared with the five months before Trump took office. That contrasts with a 159% increase nationally for the same period. Much of ICE's activity in California was hyper-focused on Greater Los Angeles: About 60% of ICE arrests in the state took place in the seven counties in and around L.A. during Trump's first five months in office. The number of arrests in the Los Angeles area soared from 463 in January to 2,185 in June — a 372% spike, second only to New York's 432% increase. Even if California is not seeing the largest numbers of arrests, experts say, the dramatic increase in captures stands out from other places because of the lack of official cooperation and public hostility toward immigration agents. 'A smaller increase in a place that has very little cooperation is, in a way, more significant than seeing an increase in areas that have lots and lots of cooperation,' Kocher said. ICE agents, Kocher said, have to work much harder to arrest immigrants in places like L.A. or California that define themselves as 'sanctuary' jurisdictions and limit their cooperation with federal immigration agents. 'They really had to go out of their way,' he said. Trump administration officials have long argued that sanctuary jurisdictions give them no choice but to round up people on the streets. Not long after Trump won the 2024 election and the L.A. City Council voted unanimously to block any city resources from being used for immigration enforcement, incoming border enforcement advisor Tom Homan threatened an onslaught. 'If I've got to send twice as many officers to L.A. because we're not getting any assistance, then that's what we're going to do,' Homan told Newsmax. With limited cooperation from California jails, ICE agents went out into communities, rounding up people they suspected of being undocumented on street corners and at factories and farms. That shift in tactics meant that immigrants with criminal convictions no longer made up the bulk of California ICE arrests. While about 66% of immigrants arrested in the first four months of the year had criminal convictions, that percentage fell to 30% in June. The sweeping nature of the arrests drew immediate criticism as racial profiling and spawned robust community condemnation. Some immigration experts and community activists cite the organized resistance in L.A. as another reason the numbers of ICE arrests were lower in California than in Texas and even lower than dozens of states by percentage of population. 'The reason is the resistance, organized resistance: the people who literally went to war with them in Paramount, in Compton, in Bell and Huntington Park,' said Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio Los Angeles, an independent political group that patrols neighborhoods to alert residents of immigration sweeps. 'They've been chased out in the different neighborhoods where we organize,' he said. 'We've been able to mobilize the community to surround the agents when they come to kidnap people.' In L.A., activists patrolled the streets from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week, Gochez said. They faced off with ICE agents in Home Depot parking lots and at warehouses and farms. 'We were doing everything that we could to try to keep up with the intensity of the military assault,' Gochez said. 'The resistance was strong. … We've been able, on numerous occasions, to successfully defend the communities and drive them out of our community.' The protests prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard and Marines in June, with the stated purpose of protecting federal buildings and personnel. But the administration's ability to ratchet up arrests hit a roadblock on July 11. That's when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking immigration agents in Southern and Central California from targeting people based on race, language, vocation or location without reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally. That decision was upheld last week by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But on Thursday, the Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the temporary ban on its patrols, arguing that it 'threatens to upend immigration officials' ability to enforce the immigration laws in the Central District of California by hanging the prospect of contempt over every investigative stop.' The order led to a significant drop in arrests across Los Angeles last month. But this week, federal agents carried out a series of raids at Home Depots from Westlake to Van Nuys. Trump administration officials have indicated that the July ruling and arrest slowdown do not signal a permanent change in tactics. 'Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want: more agents in the communities and more work site enforcement,' Homan told reporters two weeks after the court blocked roving patrols. 'Why is that? Because they won't let one agent arrest one bad guy in the jail.' U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino, who has been leading operations in California, posted a fast-moving video on X that spliced L.A. Mayor Karen Bass telling reporters that 'this experiment that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed' with video showing him grinning. Then, as a frenetic drum and bass mix kicked in, federal agents jump out of a van and chase people. 'When you're faced with opposition to law and order, what do you do?' Bovino wrote. 'Improvise, adapt, and overcome!' Clearly, the Trump administration is willing to expend significant resources to make California a political battleground and test case, Ruiz Soto said. The question is, at what economic and political cost? 'If they really wanted to scale up and ramp up their deportations,' Ruiz Soto said, 'they could go to other places, do it more more safely, more quickly and more efficiently.'
Miami Herald
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Venezuelans make up largest share of migrants deported to third countries under Trump
Venezuelans make up the largest share of migrants deported to third countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to a Miami Herald analysis of federal data. The records, which show that two of every five migrants deported to third countries are Venezuelan, were obtained by the University of California, Berkeley's Deportation Data Project through a public records request. While the dataset, covering the first half of the year, is likely incomplete, it nonetheless reveals that roughly 2,900 Venezuelan nationals were deported to countries where they were neither born nor were citizens. Almost all were transferred to Spanish-speaking nations, including Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Spain and Portugal. But there were anomalies: At least two were sent to Austria, one to Italy, one to Syria, and one to the remote Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. Out of 7,900 total deportations to third countries so far this year, more than a third involved Venezuelans — a group that has increasingly been targeted by federal immigration authorities amid allegations that the Nicolás Maduro regime has deliberately released criminals and gang members into U.S.-bound migrant caravans. 'The Trump Administration is committed to keeping the President's promise to the American people and removing illegal aliens from the United States,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson told the Herald. In March, the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the mass deportation of 230 Venezuelans to El Salvador, labeling them criminals or members of the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Upon arrival, they were placed in El Salvador's maximum-security prison known as CECOT. But according to immigration records, more than half of those deported under the so-called 'alien enemies' executive order had no criminal convictions or pending charges. Many had simply applied for asylum. After four months in Salvadoran custody, most were later flown to Venezuela. The rest of the Venezuelans deported to third countries have experienced dramatically different circumstances. Approximately 1,850 were sent to Mexico, 680 to Honduras and more than 200 to El Salvador. While those migrants were not imprisoned upon arrival, many were left vulnerable and stranded without legal recourse, identification, or financial means to continue their journeys. In northern Mexico, migrants are often dropped off in remote towns where there is little infrastructure and no access to legal assistance. Elizabeth Amaran, a South Florida-based immigration attorney, said migrants are being sent to these locations with only a 10-day transit permit and no opportunity to apply for asylum or legal residency. Mexican authorities reportedly inform them upon arrival that no refugee process is available and instruct them to leave the country within days. Left without the option to travel north or remain legally, many find themselves trapped in a legal and humanitarian limbo. 'They're put on buses and told they're going to an office to apply for asylum in Mexico, but that never happens,' Amaran said. 'When they arrive, Mexican officials tell them there's no such process and just give them a 10-day pass to leave. They can't go north, they can't stay. They're trapped.' The policy currently driving the deportations to third countries is rooted in a July 9 memo by Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The directive grants immigration officials new latitude to deport migrants—sometimes with as little as six hours' notice. The memo allows ICE to deport non-citizens, including long-term U.S. residents, to countries other than their own, so long as the individual is given an opportunity to speak with an attorney. That discretionary power was reinforced by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the administration's authority to deport migrants to third countries, provided they are given some form of notice. However, the ruling did not define what constitutes adequate notice or due process, creating a legal gray area that immigration lawyers say has left vulnerable migrants without protections. In practice, legal advocates say the six-hour window is not sufficient for migrants to mount a legal defense or even contact family and lawyers. Many are held in remote facilities far from legal services or consular support. In some cases, migrants have been transferred from detention centers in Florida to others in Louisiana or Texas just days before being deported, with minimal warning. South Florida, home to one of the largest concentrations of Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Haitian immigrants in the country, has emerged as one of the regions most affected by the policy. Many of those affected are asylum seekers with pending applications, refugees with protected status, or longtime residents with old deportation orders that had not been previously enforced. The governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are frequently described as totalitarian regimes and face multiple international accusations of human rights violations, while Haiti is currently under a wave of violence that has left most of the country under the control of criminal gangs. The data show that 514 Cubans were reported to third countries during the first half of the year, most of them to Mexico. Around 230 Nicaraguans and roughly 90 Haitians were also moved to countries to which they had no connections. Under the current guidelines, legal protections like 'withholding of removal' — a status that allows individuals to remain in the U.S. if returning to their home country would result in persecution — have become increasingly ineffective. Migrants now must also prove that they would face harm in the third country to which they're being sent, a difficult legal burden, especially when that country is unfamiliar or unsafe. For many Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans in legal limbo, the erosion of the protections has meant renewed vulnerability. Some had fled political persecution, gang violence, or humanitarian collapse in their home countries. Others had built lives in the U.S. over many years, only to find themselves suddenly subject to removal proceedings under a legal framework that offers few options for appeal. Cases involving Cuban migrants have also come under scrutiny. While the U.S. has historically limited deportations to Cuba due to Havana's strict conditions for accepting returnees, the third-country policy has provided a loophole. Now, Cubans who would otherwise be shielded from deportation are being sent to Mexico or Central America, where they lack legal status, support networks or protection from violence and exploitation. Two of Amaran's recent cases involved Cuban men detained in Florida who were being held in the Krome detention center before being transferred to Louisiana detention facilities. One had a minor theft conviction; the other had no criminal record and was awaiting a decision on a family petition to legally migrate to the United States. Both, she said, were deported to Mexico without adequate warning or the opportunity to present a 'credible fear' interview—a legal step that could have paused their removal and given them the chance to apply for asylum. Neither had legal representation at the time of deportation. Once in Mexico, her clients were put on buses and were told that they would be taken to an office where they would be able to apply for a temporary status to stay in the country. 'But they were misled,' Amaran said. 'They were tricked into getting on the buses to avoid any kind of confrontation, and were taken to a small town the middle of nowhere where officials told them, 'There's nothing for you here, we don't have no papers, no permits to give you. So you have 10 days to leave the country.'' They were given only a 10-day temporary pass stating that they could only travel south, not north, she said. 'So basically, they were left in the middle of nowhere, with no authorization to stay in the country and no money to leave the country. They had to start looking for people, relatives, that could help them leave Mexico, but even sending them money proved hard because they didn't have the documents needed to collect the money transfered,' she said. 'Only one of them found a way to get out, and that is because a relative was able to travel to where he was and got him out... and return to Cuba.' In many deportations to third countries migrants are served removal notices only hours before their flights. Attorneys say the notices often arrive late at night or shortly before business hours begin, making it nearly impossible for detainees to contact legal counsel or consular services. Even when the opportunity to speak with an attorney exists in theory, the logistical reality—limited phone access, language barriers, remote detention centers—means that most deportations proceed without meaningful legal intervention. The problem is compounded by bureaucratic technicalities. Migrants who fail to file their asylum applications within one year of arrival in the U.S. are automatically disqualified from the formal asylum process unless they can prove exceptional circumstances. Others who arrived legally as children but later lost their status due to minor infractions now find themselves targeted under the third-country deportation policy. As the Trump administration doubles down on its hardline immigration agenda, advocates warn that the new deportation strategy undermines established humanitarian norms. By rerouting vulnerable migrants to unfamiliar nations with little to no infrastructure for receiving refugees, the policy effectively circumvents long-standing international commitments to asylum seekers. Though the administration insists the deportations target criminals and threats to national security, available data suggest otherwise. The majority of deported Venezuelans had no criminal history. Many had applied for asylum or other forms of relief and were still awaiting outcomes. Others had been swept up in enforcement operations due to old removal orders or minor legal infractions. The trend has become a source of concern for the leadership of Venezuela's opposition, even though the movement continues to see Washington as its biggest ally in its struggle against Maduro. Reacting to the administration sending Venezuelans to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González expressed support earlier this year for the U.S. government's crackdown on the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, but urged President Trump not to penalize honest, hard-working Venezuelans seeking refuge abroad. 'We urge the competent authorities... to take extreme precautions when administering justice, clearly distinguishing between criminals employed by the Maduro regime to commit crimes abroad and the vast majority of innocent migrants,' the opposition leaders said in a joint statement, 'thus avoiding the unjust criminalization of Venezuelan migrants in general.'
