By Nate Raymond and Ted Hesson
BOSTON (Reuters) -U.S. 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.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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 U.S., including those with criminal convictions.
Advocates have criticized 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.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Diane Craft)
