Latest news with #TinThanhNguyen
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
L.A. Vietnamese man came for annual ICE check-in, then nearly got deported to Libya
A Los Angeles construction worker from Vietnam was among 13 immigrants roused by guards in full combat gear around 2:30 a.m. one day last week in a Texas detention facility, shackled, forced onto a bus and told they would be deported to Libya, two of the detainees' lawyers said. "It was very aggressive. They weren't allowed to do anything," said Tin Thanh Nguyen, an attorney for the Los Angeles man, whom he did not identify for fear of retaliation. Libya, the politically unstable country in North Africa, is beset by "terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict," according to the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups have documented inhumane conditions at detention facilities and migrant camps, including torture, forced labor and rape. The construction worker, who has a criminal conviction on his record, had lived in the U.S. for decades and has a wife and teenage daughter. He was arrested after appearing at an annual immigration check-in at a Los Angeles office two months ago and then shuffled around to various detention facilities before arriving at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall. In the early morning hours of May 7, he placed on the bus from the detention facility south to what was likely Lackland Air Force Base. From there, he and the rest of the group sat for hours on the tarmac in front of a military plane in the predawn dark, unsure what was going to happen. The men hailed from Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mali, Burundi, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico and the Philippines, the attorneys said. None were from Libya. "My client and the other men on the bus were silent," Nguyen said in court files. "My client was extremely scared." The plane hatch was open. Military personnel bustled in and out, appearing to bring in supplies and fuel the plane. Photographers positioned themselves in front of the military aircraft. "Suddenly the bus starts moving and heading back to the detention facility," said Johnny Sinodis, an attorney for another detainee, a Filipino who grew up and went to college in the United States and also had a criminal conviction. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts had issued a warning to the administration to halt any immediate removal to Libya or any other third country, as it would violate a previous court order that officials must provide detainees with due process and notice in their own language. Lawyers had scrambled to get the order after media reports confirmed what their clients had told them: Removals to Libya appeared imminent. Sinodis said his client and others were returned to the detention unit and placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours. In his declaration, he said his client spoke to a Mexican and a Bolivian national who were in the group. Each had been told that their home countries would accept them, but the officials still said they were going to send them to Libya. It's been a week since the incident, and the lawyers said they are still fighting to stop their clients deportations to a third country. The Trump administration deported hundreds of mostly Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador, invoking a wartime law to speedily remove accused gang members. Their deportation drew immediate challenges and became the most contentious piece of the immigration crackdown. Officials have also sent people to Panama who were not from that country. This month, the foreign minister of Rwanda said in a televison interview it was in talks with U.S. officials to take in deported migrants. It's unclear how Libya came to be a possible destination for the immigrants. Two governments claim power in the nation. The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity has denied any deal with the Trump administration. The Government of National Stability, based in Benghazi, also rejected reports that it would take deportees. The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that it had information that at least 100 Venezuelans held in the Salvadoran megaprison weren't told they were going to be deported to a third country, had no access to a lawyer and were unable to challenge the removal. "This situation raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both U.S. and international law," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement. 'The manner in which some of the individuals were detained and deported — including the use of shackles on them — as well as the demeaning rhetoric used against migrants, has also been profoundly disturbing.' Sinodis said his client had already been in custody for months and been told that he would be deported to the Philippines in late April. But that month, he was transferred from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., to Texas. An officer in Tacoma told him the decision to move him there came from "headquarters," according to court documents. On May 5, he was scheduled to be interviewed by two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Texas. He expected to learn of his deportation date. Instead, they handed him a one-page document that said he would be deported to Libya. He was shocked, Sinodis said. The man asked the officers whether there was anything he or his attorney could do to avoid this. They said no. Nguyen said his client, who doesn't speak English fluently, had a similar experience on the same day. The officers handed him a document in English that they said would allow him to be free in Libya. He doesn't even know where Libya is and refused to sign the document. The officers told him he would be deported no matter what he did. The next day, Sinodis said, his client's commissary and phone accounts were zeroed out. Sinodis finally reached an officer at the detention center who told him, "That's crazy," when asked about Libya. His client must have misheard, he said. But his client, who grew up on the West Coast, speaks fluent English. Then on May 7, as things unfolded, the attorney reached another officer at the facility, who said he had no information that the man was going to Libya, and referred him back to an officer in Tacoma. A supervisor downplayed the situation. "I can assure you this is not an emergency because the emergency does not exist," the supervisor told him, according to court documents. Shortly after noon that day, a detention center officer who identified himself as Garza called and told him he was looking into it, but so far had "no explanation" for why his client was told this, but he also couldn't guarantee it didn't happen. Less than an hour later, his client called to tell him that he had been taken to an air base. He said when he was pulled out of his cell in the early morning, he saw the same two officers that interviewed him and asked him to sign the removal papers. "He asks the officers, 'Are we still going to Libya?" he recounted. "They said yes." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
15-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. Vietnamese man came for annual ICE check-in, then nearly got deported to Libya
A Los Angeles construction worker from Vietnam was among 13 immigrants roused by guards in full combat gear around 2:30 a.m. one day last week in a Texas detention facility, shackled, forced onto a bus and told they would be deported to Libya, two of the detainees' lawyers said. 'It was very aggressive. They weren't allowed to do anything,' said Tin Thanh Nguyen, an attorney for the Los Angeles man, whom he did not identify for fear of retaliation. Libya, the politically unstable country in North Africa, is beset by 'terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict,' according to the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups have documented inhumane conditions at detention facilities and migrant camps, including torture, forced labor and rape. The construction worker, who has a criminal conviction on his record, had lived in the U.S. for decades and has a wife and teenage daughter. He was arrested after appearing at an annual immigration check-in at a Los Angeles office two months ago and then shuffled around to various detention facilities before arriving at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall. In the early morning hours of May 7, he placed on the bus from the detention facility south to what was likely Lackland Air Force Base. From there, he and the rest of the group sat for hours on the tarmac in front of a military plane in the predawn dark, unsure what was going to happen. The men hailed from Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mali, Burundi, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico and the Philippines, the attorneys said. None were from Libya. 'My client and the other men on the bus were silent,' Nguyen said in court files. 'My client was extremely scared.' The plane hatch was open. Military personnel bustled in and out, appearing to bring in supplies and fuel the plane. Photographers positioned themselves in front of the military aircraft. 'Suddenly the bus starts moving and heading back to the detention facility,' said Johnny Sinodis, an attorney for another detainee, a Filipino who grew up and went to college in the United States and also had a criminal conviction. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts had issued a warning to the administration to halt any immediate removal to Libya or any other third country, as it would violate a previous court order that officials must provide detainees with due process and notice in their own language. Lawyers had scrambled to get the order after media reports confirmed what their clients had told them: Removals to Libya appeared imminent. Sinodis said his client and others were returned to the detention unit and placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours. In his declaration, he said his client spoke to a Mexican and a Bolivian national who were in the group. Each had been told that their home countries would accept them, but the officials still said they were going to send them to Libya. It's been a week since the incident, and the lawyers said they are still fighting to stop their clients deportations to a third country. The Trump administration deported hundreds of mostly Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador, invoking a wartime law to speedily remove accused gang members. Their deportation drew immediate challenges and became the most contentious piece of the immigration crackdown. Officials have also sent people to Panama who were not from that country. This month, the foreign minister of Rwanda said in a televison interview it was in talks with U.S. officials to take in deported migrants. It's unclear how Libya came to be a possible destination for the immigrants. Two governments claim power in the nation. The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity has denied any deal with the Trump administration. The Government of National Stability, based in Benghazi, also rejected reports that it would take deportees. The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that it had information that at least 100 Venezuelans held in the Salvadoran megaprison weren't told they were going to be deported to a third country, had no access to a lawyer and were unable to challenge the removal. 'This situation raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both U.S. and international law,' U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement. 'The manner in which some of the individuals were detained and deported — including the use of shackles on them — as well as the demeaning rhetoric used against migrants, has also been profoundly disturbing.' Sinodis said his client had already been in custody for months and been told that he would be deported to the Philippines in late April. But that month, he was transferred from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., to Texas. An officer in Tacoma told him the decision to move him there came from 'headquarters,' according to court documents. On May 5, he was scheduled to be interviewed by two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Texas. He expected to learn of his deportation date. Instead, they handed him a one-page document that said he would be deported to Libya. He was shocked, Sinodis said. The man asked the officers whether there was anything he or his attorney could do to avoid this. They said no. Nguyen said his client, who doesn't speak English fluently, had a similar experience on the same day. The officers handed him a document in English that they said would allow him to be free in Libya. He doesn't even know where Libya is and refused to sign the document. The officers told him he would be deported no matter what he did. The next day, Sinodis said, his client's commissary and phone accounts were zeroed out. Sinodis finally reached an officer at the detention center who told him, 'That's crazy,' when asked about Libya. His client must have misheard, he said. But his client, who grew up on the West Coast, speaks fluent English. Then on May 7, as things unfolded, the attorney reached another officer at the facility, who said he had no information that the man was going to Libya, and referred him back to an officer in Tacoma. A supervisor downplayed the situation. 'I can assure you this is not an emergency because the emergency does not exist,' the supervisor told him, according to court documents. Shortly after noon that day, a detention center officer who identified himself as Garza called and told him he was looking into it, but so far had 'no explanation' for why his client was told this, but he also couldn't guarantee it didn't happen. Less than an hour later, his client called to tell him that he had been taken to an air base. He said when he was pulled out of his cell in the early morning, he saw the same two officers that interviewed him and asked him to sign the removal papers. 'He asks the officers, 'Are we still going to Libya?' he recounted. 'They said yes.'
Arab News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Migrants told of Libya deportation waited hours on tarmac, attorney says
WASHINGTON: Migrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men told Reuters. The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the migrants woken in the early morning hours and bused from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them. After several hours, they were bused back to the detention center around noon, the attorney said on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was first to report that US President Donald Trump's administration was poised to deport migrants to Libya, a move that would escalate his immigration crackdown which has already drawn legal backlash. Officials earlier this week told Reuters the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change. A US official told Reuters the flight never departed. As of Friday, it was unclear if the administration was still planning to proceed with the deportations. A federal judge in Boston ruled on Wednesday that any effort by the Trump administration to deport non-Libyan migrants to Libya without adequate screenings for possible persecution or torture would clearly violate a prior court order. Lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit had made an emergency request to the court hours after the news broke of the potential flight to Libya. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Nguyen, who declined to name his client, said the man was told on Monday to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya. The man, who does not read English well, declined to sign it and was placed in solitary confinement and shackled along with four or five other men, the attorney said. The man was never provided an opportunity to express a fear of being deported to Libya as required under federal immigration law and the recent judicial order, Nguyen said. 'They said, 'We're deporting you to Libya,' even though he hadn't signed the form, he didn't know what the form was,' Nguyen said. Nguyen said his client, originally from Vietnam, has lived in the US since the 1990s but was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year during a regular check-in. Vietnam declines to accept some deportees and processes deportation paperwork slowly, Nguyen said, making it harder for the US to send deportees there.
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Immigrants set for Libya deportation sat on tarmac for hours, attorney says
Immigrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men has said. The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told the news agency Reuters that his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the immigrants woken in the early morning hours and bussed from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them. After several hours, they were bussed back to the detention center around noon, the attorney said on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and the state department did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was first to report that the Trump administration was poised to deport immigrants held in the US to Libya, despite a court order against such a move, in a development that would escalate Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Officials earlier this week told Reuters the US military could fly the immigrants to the north African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change. A US official said the flight never departed. As of Friday, it was unclear if the administration was still planning to proceed with the deportations. A federal judge in Boston ruled on Wednesday that any effort by the Trump administration to deport non-Libyan immigrants to Libya without adequate screenings for possible persecution or torture would clearly violate a prior court order. Lawyers for a group of immigrants pursuing a class action lawsuit had made an emergency request to the court hours after the news broke of the potential flight to Libya. Nguyen, who declined to name his client, said the man was told on Monday to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya. The man, who can not read English well, declined to sign it and was placed in solitary confinement and shackled along with others, the attorney said. The man was never provided an opportunity to express a fear of being deported to Libya as required under federal immigration law and the recent judicial order, Nguyen said. 'They said: 'We're deporting you to Libya,' even though he hadn't signed the form, he didn't know what the form was,' Nguyen said. Nguyen said his client, originally from Vietnam, has lived in the US since the 1990s but was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) earlier this year during a regular check-in, which is becoming more common. Vietnam declines to accept some deportees and processes deportation paperwork slowly, Nguyen said, making it harder for the US to send deportees there. There have been talks between the US and the east African nation of Rwanda about also deporting people there.
The Star
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Migrants told of Libya deportation waited hours on tarmac, attorney says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Migrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men told Reuters. The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the migrants woken in the early morning hours and bused from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them. After several hours, they were bused back to the detention center around noon, the attorney said on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was first to report that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was poised to deport migrants to Libya, a move that would escalate his immigration crackdown which has already drawn legal backlash. Officials earlier this week told Reuters the U.S. military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change. A U.S. official told Reuters the flight never departed. As of Friday, it was unclear if the administration was still planning to proceed with the deportations. A federal judge in Boston ruled on Wednesday that any effort by the Trump administration to deport non-Libyan migrants to Libya without adequate screenings for possible persecution or torture would clearly violate a prior court order. Lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit had made an emergency request to the court hours after the news broke of the potential flight to Libya. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Nguyen, who declined to name his client, said the man was told on Monday to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya. The man, who does not read English well, declined to sign it and was placed in solitary confinement and shackled along with four or five other men, the attorney said. The man was never provided an opportunity to express a fear of being deported to Libya as required under federal immigration law and the recent judicial order, Nguyen said. "They said, 'We're deporting you to Libya,' even though he hadn't signed the form, he didn't know what the form was," Nguyen said. Nguyen said his client, originally from Vietnam, has lived in the U.S. since the 1990s but was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year during a regular check-in. Vietnam declines to accept some deportees and processes deportation paperwork slowly, Nguyen said, making it harder for the U.S. to send deportees there. (Reporting by Ted Hesson, Phil Stewart and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Richard Chang)
