Former President Donald Trump is reportedly planning a controversial immigration policy that could see migrants deported to countries other than their place of origin if their home nations refuse to accept them. This strategy, according to three sources familiar with the plans, could impact thousands, potentially even hundreds of thousands, of individuals.
The list of potential third-country destinations includes the Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Panama, and Grenada. This move raises concerns about permanently displacing migrants in unfamiliar environments where they lack social connections, language proficiency, or cultural understanding.
This isn’t the first time such a policy has been considered. During Trump’s first term in 2019, migrants were sent to Guatemala under an agreement where that country agreed to accept individuals seeking asylum in the United States. “We sued over this type of policy during the first Trump administration becuase it was illegal and put asylum seekers at serious risk,” Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the ACLU’s national office, told NBC News.
This practice, which continued into early 2020 on a smaller scale before being paused due to the pandemic, involved sending asylum seekers to Guatemala without prior knowledge of their destination.
The current plan targets migrants from countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and China, which have historically been reluctant to accept their citizens back after they’ve immigrated to the United States. U.S. authorities are prohibited by federal courts from indefinitely detaining these individuals, often leading to their release into the U.S. even if deportation orders are in place.
This new strategy aims to circumvent this legal hurdle and fulfill Trump’s promise of the “largest deportation operation in the history of the United States.”
The potential ramifications of this policy are notable, raising ethical and legal questions about the treatment of migrants and the responsibilities of nations towards those seeking refuge.
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