A US federal appeals court has ruled that immigrants facing deportation to countries where they have no ties must receive sufficient notice and a meaningful opportunity to challenge their removal before being sent there. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously struck down a Department of Homeland Security policy that allowed the administration to deport immigrants to so-called third countries with little or no advance notice.The ruling means migrants must be allowed to raise concerns if they fear persecution or other harm in the country to which they are being deported.“An individual’s right to contest removal to a country based on a fear of persecution in that country means little if one does not receive prior notice of the intended removal destination and a meaningful opportunity to contest that destination,” Circuit Judge Seth Aframe wrote in the ruling.
What are third-country deportations?
A third-country deportation involves removing an immigrant to a country that is neither their country of citizenship nor necessarily a country where they have family or other ties.The Trump administration has expanded the practice in recent months after reaching agreements with dozens of countries, including Liberia, Ghana, the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone. About 25,000 people have been deported to third countries during the administration’s immigration crackdown.The administration has cited diplomatic assurances from receiving countries that deported immigrants will not be mistreated.But the lawsuit challenging the policy argued that migrants were sometimes given little or no opportunity to object before being put on flights to countries where they could face persecution or other serious harm.The appeals court agreed that prior notice and an opportunity to challenge the destination were required. The Washington Post reported that the court found the government had not adequately shown which countries had provided the diplomatic assurances relied upon by the administration.The case follows reports of immigrants being deported to countries they had never visited. ABC News recently reported on a group of Latin American men sent to the Central African Republic who said they were not told their destination until hours into the flight.The latest ruling does not eliminate the government’s ability to deport immigrants to third countries. Instead, it requires the administration to provide the procedural protections migrants need to challenge removal to a particular destination before sending them there.The ruling is the latest development in a broader legal battle over the Trump administration’s expanded use of third-country deportations.
