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New York Times
01-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Lawsuit Against Panama Challenges Detention of Trump Deportees
A group of high-profile lawyers on Saturday filed a suit against Panama over its detention of migrants deported from the United States, threatening to disrupt President Trump's new policy of exporting migrants from around the world to Central American countries. The lawsuit, filed against the government of Panama before the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, names 10 Iranian Christian converts and 102 migrants detained at a camp near a jungle in Panama as plaintiffs, according to a copy seen by The New York Times. The suit argues that the United States violated the Iranian group's right to asylum on account of religious persecution and that Panama has violated domestic and international laws, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, in its detention of the migrants. The lawsuit was filed only against Panama, although one of the lawyers involved said he planned to file a separate complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this coming week. Responding to a request for a comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for President Raúl Mulino of Panama, Astrid Salazar, said that the migrants 'are not detained' by the Panamanian government. 'They are not in our command but rather that of IOM and UNHCR.' The migrants are being held at a fenced camp guarded by armed Panamanian police officers, and Panama's security ministry controls all access to the facility. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency do not have regular presence at the camp, and have said that they are not in charge of the migrants, but rather are offering some humanitarian support, like providing funds for food. The suit filed on Saturday requests that the commission issue emergency orders saying that none of the detained migrants at the jungle camp should be deported to their countries of origin. 'Panama's government has no domestic or international authority to detain people under these circumstances,' said Ian Kysel, associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and the plaintiffs' lead counsel. In mid-February the Trump administration opened a new front in its efforts to deport millions of people by sending recently arrived migrants from around the world to Central America. About 300 people were flown to Panama and held at a hotel in Panama City, including the 10 Iranian converts, several children among them. More than 100 people who did not agree to return to their countries of origin were later transferred to a detention camp near the Darién jungle, where they remain. The Trump administration has since thanked Panama for its assistance in tackling migration challenges. But the arrival of the deportees and their detentions have created problems for the government of Mr. Mulino, which agreed to take the migrants but has received criticism from the United Nations, human rights activists and lawyers for holding them without criminal charges. The human rights commission is a seven-member body whose decisions apply to members, including Panama. It is meant to be used when individuals feel their domestic legal options have been exhausted or in cases where irreparable harm is imminent and plaintiffs say they need rapid legal protections. The commission cannot impose sanctions, but ignoring its decisions could come with political risks. José Miguel Vivanco, an expert on human rights issues in Latin America, said that if the commission ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, he thought Panama would comply. Were the commission to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, halting their deportations, it could make it more difficult for Mr. Trump to convince leaders in Panama and elsewhere to take in migrants the United States does not want to deal with. After sending the migrants to Panama, the Trump administration sent 200 migrants from Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe to Costa Rica, including dozens of children. As in Panama, the migrants are being held at a remote facility several hours' drive from the capital. Mr. Kysel said similar legal actions are expected against other countries in Latin America, including Costa Rica, that are cooperating with Mr. Trump and accepting deportees. In both cases, the Central American governments said they planned to deport people quickly to their home countries. In the lawsuit, lawyers argue that for the Iranian Christians deportation would carry 'irrefutable harm,' because Iran's law stipulates that converting from Islam is a crime punishable by death. 'I am afraid of what will happen to me at the hands of the government of Panama,' one of the Iranians, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, said in a sworn declaration filed in the lawsuit. 'I still want to seek asylum in the United States and pursue a free life as a Christian there.' Ms. Ghasemzadeh, 27, who fled Iran in December and made her way from Mexico across the southern U.S. border, has been publicizing their ordeal in media interviews. She first attracted global attention when a video in which she recounted being shackled and deported to Panama spread widely online. The commission typically issues decisions in such cases within 48 hours, said Mr. Vivanco. The bar for the commission to issue protections to plaintiffs is very high, he said. But given Iran's policy toward converted Christians, he thought the case had a chance. 'I think this is going to get the attention of everyone involved,' he said. Mr. Kysel said he hoped the lawsuit deterred other countries from participating in Mr. Trump's deportation plans. 'Panama and any other country in the region face legal liability if they receive, detain and deport asylum-seekers summarily expelled from the United States,' said Mr. Kysel. The lawsuit is a result of collaboration among lawyers and legal groups in multiple countries. One of the lawyers, Ali Herischi, who is representing the Iranians pro bono, said he plans on filing a separate lawsuit this week against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit would be on behalf of Ms. Ghasemzadeh and the nine Iranian Christian converts, three of them children, in Panama and three Iranians deported to Costa Rica. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security has previously said that none of the migrants had 'asserted fear of returning to their home country at any point during processing or custody.' Ms. Ghasemzadeh contends she repeatedly asked to fill out paper work for asylum but immigration officials at the camp in California where she was held kept telling her this was not the time. Mr. Herischi said the motion would challenge the legality of their deportation and requests as a remedy that the group be allowed to apply for asylum in the United States.
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Locked in a Jungle Camp, Migrants Deported to Panama Face Uncertain Future
The camp lies four hours from Panama's capital, down a bumpy, often desolate highway, at the edge of a treacherous jungle called the Darién. For more than a week, it has held more than 100 asylum seekers from around the world. Surrounded by fences and armed guards, they sleep on cots or hard benches. Journalists have been barred, lawyers say they have been blocked from speaking to their clients and it is the government in charge — not the international aid groups Panamanian officials say are the ones organizing the operation. The migrants are among several hundred people who arrived in recent weeks at the U.S. southern border, hoping to seek asylum in the United States, and were swiftly deported to Central America. They have since become test cases in the Trump administration's effort to send some of its most challenging-to-deport people to other countries. Of the roughly 300 people sent to Panama, more than half have agreed to be repatriated, according to President Raúl Mulino. Another 112 have said that it is too dangerous for them to go home or that they lack documentation allowing them to do so. Now they are at the camp by the jungle with no sense of how long they will be held or where they may be sent next. Though their numbers are small, their cases point to the tension between the Trump administration's aims of expelling vast numbers of migrants and the limits of Latin American countries working to facilitate those ambitions — under enormous pressure from President Trump. Panama, like the United States, cannot easily deport people to places like Afghanistan and Iran, often because those countries refuse to take back their citizens. Those trapped at the camp include at least eight children, as well as women fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan and Christian converts fleeing the government in Iran. None have been charged with crimes, according to Panamanian officials. A few people inside the camp still have access to cellphones and have been able to communicate with The New York Times. 'We told them: You are treating us like prisoners,' said Sahar Bidman, 33, a mother of two from Iran. 'When I want to take my children to the shower they escort us.' As Panamanian officials struggle to figure out what to do with this group, they have faced growing criticism from lawyers and human rights activists. Gehad Madi, a United Nations special rapporteur who was permitted to visit the camp in recent days, emerged with pointed critique. He called it a 'detention center' and said he was 'extremely concerned' about the legal basis for holding the migrants. A petition of habeas corpus presented by a Panamanian lawyer to the country's supreme court claims the group's internment is illegal. Mr. Mulino told reporters on Thursday that the migrants at the camp, called San Vicente, were awaiting documentation, which some lacked and would need to travel. He did not explain how the government planned to deport people, or say if it would offer people asylum in Panama or facilitate passage to a different country willing to take them. Asked why the detainees had not been allowed to speak to lawyers, he answered: 'I don't know.' The United States, through the U.N. Refugee Agency, is paying for food, lodging and other needs of the deported migrants, said Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, Panama's vice minister of foreign affairs. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said questions about the migrants should be directed to Panama. 'These individuals are in the custody of the Panamanian government,' she said, 'not the United States.' Mr. Mulino had earlier said that the migrants' arrival in his country was 'being organized' by two United Nations agencies, 'not by the government of Panama.' But one of those agencies, the U.N. Refugee Agency, said in a statement that it was not actually working inside the camp and was simply providing funds. The other agency, the International Organization for Migration, has also not been regularly present in the Darién camp, according to a person with close knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. It has focused on arranging repatriation for those who volunteered for it. At least two groups, the Red Cross and UNICEF, have begun providing aid in the camp in recent days, according to migrants. Mr. Ruiz-Hernández, in a written response to questions from The Times, said, 'We want to assure the public that all migrants at San Vicente continue to receive comprehensive support.' 'Our government,' he continued, 'remains dedicated to upholding human dignity and addressing the needs of every individual within our care.' Ms. Bidman is one of 10 Iranian Christians at San Vicente who said they had left their country in the hopes of practicing their religion freely in the United States. Instead, the U.S. government in mid-February flew them from California to Panama City, where they were locked in a hotel for about a week. After they refused deportation, they were bused to the San Vicente camp. Converts from Islam to Christianity in Iran face a possible punishment of death. The group is given three meals a day, and when Ms. Bidman's son, Sam, age 11, injured his leg he was taken to a clinic where a doctor examined him and provided painkillers. After a visit from the Red Cross and UNICEF, conditions inside improved slightly, several of the Iranians said, with camp authorities cleaning living quarters and the showers and providing a water cooler. 'At the beginning when we arrived here the kids cried every day,' Ms. Bidman said. 'I keep telling them this is temporary and at the end of it we will go someplace nice.' The people held at San Vicente are part of a much larger migration challenge for Central American nations. Starting in 2021, enormous numbers of people began trekking from South America into Panama, through the Darién jungle, in an attempt to reach the United States. With Mr. Trump promising mass deportations, the wave is starting to go in reverse, with migrants trudging south from Mexico. Mr. Mulino has said he is considering flying Venezuelan migrants from Panama to Colombia, where they could cross by land back into Venezuela. (Lacking relations with Venezuela, he cannot simply send them to Caracas.) This has drawn at least 2,000 people, including many Venezuelans, to Panama in recent weeks, said Mr. Mulino, even though no flights have materialized. Instead, some returning migrants have begun taking dangerous, hourslong boat rides from Panama to Colombia, over choppy waters. One boat shipwrecked this month amid bad weather, resulting in the drowning of an eight-year-old girl, according to border police. Many returnees are now waiting at a different government migrant camp, called Lajas Blancas, about 40 minutes from San Vicente. There, six migrants told The Times that Panamanian officials were the ones signing people up for the boat journeys. Mr. Mulino has acknowledged the existence of these maritime trips. Asked about official involvement, Mr. Ruiz-Hernández said the country had 'implemented a comprehensive approach to ensure the safety and protection of migrants being repatriated to their home countries.' Zulimar Ramos, 31, one of the Venezuelans at Lajas Blancas, said she was considering taking one of the boat rides, despite the dangers. 'The American dream is dead,' she said. Panama is not the only country pressed by the Trump administration to accept deportees from around the world. In February, Costa Rica received more than 200 people from Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, including many children. As in Panama, the migrants are being held at a remote facility some six hours from the capital. Omer Badilla, the head of the country's migration authority, has said people were being held to protect them from falling prey to traffickers. For family members of the deportees, the lack of clarity about the length and terms of their detention has been painful. Farzana, 22, who lives in Canada, said her sister was among those held at the Panamanian camp. The sister had entered the United States earlier this year, hoping to traverse the nation and seek refuge in Canada, Farzana said. Concerned her sister would face retaliation at the camp if a family member spoke out, Farzana asked that only her first name be used. A lawyer working with the women, Leigh Salsberg, said she has been trying to get in touch someone at the camp with no success. 'It feels like these people are in a black hole. I've been reaching out to the UNHCR' — the refugee agency — 'and IOM, and it seems that no one is actually in contact with them at all.' Farzana cried as she told her sister's story. 'It's really hard for me,' she said. 'I'm really worried about her. But I can't do anything.'
