The Trump administration's rush to quickly deport immigrants with criminal records has led U.S. officials to send several men to prisons in Africa even though their home countries would have taken them back, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: President Trump's team has justified deportations to prisons in Eswatini and South Sudan by claiming that no other countries — including the immigrants' homelands — would accept criminals ousted from the U.S.
- But foreign government officials, immigration attorneys and court filings indicate that wasn't the case with at least two groups of deportees this summer that included a dozen migrants from Mexico, Vietnam and Jamaica who'd been convicted of crimes such as murder and robbery.
- It's unclear whether U.S. officials gave those deportees' home countries a chance to accept the return of their citizens — as has long been required by law — before sending them to the prisons in Africa.
Zoom out: Unlike the hundreds of Venezuelans the Department of Homeland Security deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador — or the dozens of asylum seekers sent to Costa Rica and Panama — the two groups of deportees whose cases were examined by Axios had judges' orders to be removed from the U.S.
- For such deportees, U.S. law requires judges to designate a preferred country or the deportee's country of origin as the priority destination.
- A second option is for the deportee to be sent to a country with which he or she has ties. Deportation to a "third country" unfamiliar to the deportee is only a last resort.
What they're saying: "The Trump administration has just skipped all of those steps" and simply moved immigrants "to a country that's willing to accept them — and that, we think, is a clear violation of statute," said Trina Realmuto, an attorney leading a class-action lawsuit againsst "third country" deportations.
- "DHS does not have unfettered discretion to decide where to send noncitizens," one court document argues in the lawsuit.
- "This is all meant to be a punitive stunt, fear-mongering stunt to play out in the media," Realmuto told Axios.
Zoom in: Eleven people were on the first flights to South Sudan and Eswatini despite having no ties to those countries, and several more were put on flights to Rwanda and Ghana, Axios' review of the cases found.
- A Mexican man was sent to South Sudan despite the Mexican government's policy of always accepting its citizens deported from the U.S. He's now been returned to Mexico.
- It's unclear whether U.S. officials tried to contact Mexico before sending the man to South Sudan. "Mexico accepts the returns of its nationals. Period. Full stop," said Anwen Hughes, an attorney for Human Rights First, who represented the man.
In the case of a Jamaican man who was sent to Eswatini, Jamaican officials say they learned of his deportation from media reports, not U.S. officials.
- Jamaica's foreign minister said in a statement that her nation hadn't refused the return of any of its citizens from the U.S. The Jamaican deportee eventually was returned to his home country.
For a Vietnamese man deported to Eswatini and another deported to South Sudan, it appears U.S. immigration officials didn't notify Vietnam of its citizens' removals.
- Tin Thanh Nguyen, an immigration attorney working on both men's cases, told Axios there's no evidence of U.S. officials requesting travel documents from the Vietnamese government, which typically starts the deportation process.
- One of his clients was first told he was headed to Eswatini while sitting on the plane that was headed there, Nguyen said.
The latest: Officials in Eswatini and South Sudan now say they'll return all of the men to their native countries — eventually — despite the U.S. government's claims that wasn't possible.
- "The repatriation process has already begun .... In, maybe, less than 12 months they should all be going back to their countries," Eswatini government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said in an interview with South African Broadcasting.
- South Sudan's foreign affairs ministry said it's also committed to returning the deportees that nation received to their home countries.
The other side: "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in [El Salvador], Eswatini, South Sudan or another third country," U.S. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Trisha McLaughlin said.
- "President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem are using every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens out of American communities and out of our country," McLaughlin added.
- "Our message is clear: Criminals are not welcome in the United States. Illegal aliens who commit barbaric crimes are frequently not taken back by their home countries."
What to watch: Texts of two "third country" agreements, obtained by Axios, indicate the U.S. could send hundreds more deportees to Africa in exchange for millions of dollars.
- Eswatini agreed to accept 160 deportees for $5.1 million, according to a copy of the agreement signed May 14.
- Rwanda signed up to be paid $7.5 million to accept 250 deportees in a deal signed on June 3.
