Latest news with #thirdcountry
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Resumes Third-Country Deportation Flights
The Trump administration sent five migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to a small African nation on Tuesday, resuming the practice of so-called third-country deportations after the Supreme Court cleared the practice earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security officials said Tuesday. The deportations were announced on social media by the agency on Tuesday evening. 'NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed — This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,' wrote Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman. She added that the men had been convicted of crimes including murder, assault and robbery. Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a nation of about 6,700 square miles surrounded on three sides by South Africa. The New York Times previously reported negotiations with Eswatini in an investigation detailing how the Trump administration had been looking to get more than 50 countries to take migrants from other places. Since the early days of the Trump administration, homeland security officials have sent migrants to countries they are not from, including sending hundreds of migrants from countries including China, Iran and Pakistan to Panama and Costa Rica in February. Later, the administration sent Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, and earlier this month, after weeks of legal delays, it sent eight migrants from several countries to South Sudan. The migrants had spent six weeks in Djibouti, after a federal judge ruled that the administration needed to allow more time for migrants to express fear of torture in a third country and to appeal any potential denial of their claims. That ruling was put on pause by the Supreme Court. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released internal guidance allowing for such deportations to occur quickly if the State Department received assurances that the migrants would not be persecuted in the third country. Even without such assurances, officials could still deport migrants in as little as six hours in certain circumstances. The Trump administration has been increasingly encouraging immigrants to self-deport, emphasizing the potential consequences for those who remain in the United States without authorization, including detention at a center in Florida known as 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the practice of third-country deportations in her dissent from the Supreme Court ruling. 'What the government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,' she wrote.
Free Malaysia Today
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
ICE may deport migrants to third countries with just six hours' notice
Advocates criticised the deportations as dangerous and cruel, saying people could face violence abroad without connections or knowledge of the language. (EPA Images pic) BOSTON : US immigration officials may deport migrants to countries other than their home nations with as little as six hours' notice, a top Trump administration official said in a memo, offering a preview of how deportations could ramp up. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport someone after informing them of their removal to a so-called 'third country,' according to a memo dated Wednesday, July 9, from the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons. ICE could remove them, however, to a so-called 'third country' with as little as six hours' notice 'in exigent circumstances,' said the memo, as long as the person has been provided the chance to speak with an attorney. The memo states that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them 'without the need for further procedures.' The new ICE policy suggests President Donald Trump's administration could move quickly to send migrants to countries around the world. The supreme court in June lifted a lower court's order limiting such deportations without a screening for fear of persecution in the destination country. Following the high court's ruling and a subsequent order from the justices, the Trump administration sent eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam to South Sudan. The administration last week pressed officials from five African nations – Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon – to accept deportees from elsewhere, Reuters reported. The Washington Post first reported the new ICE memo. The administration argues the third country deportations help swiftly remove migrants who should not be in the US, including those with criminal convictions. Advocates have criticised the deportations as dangerous and cruel, since people could be sent to countries where they could face violence, have no ties and do not speak the language. Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit against such rapid third-county deportations at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the policy 'falls far short of providing the statutory and due process protections that the law requires.' Third-country deportations have been done in the past, but the tool could be more frequently used as Trump tries to ramp up deportations to record levels. During Trump's 2017-2021 presidency, his administration deported small numbers of people from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala. Former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration struck a deal with Mexico to take thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, since it was difficult to deport migrants to those nations. The new ICE memo was filed as evidence in a lawsuit over the wrongful deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
