Members of Congress expressed outrage at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deceiving eight men who were recently deported to South Sudan, as revealed earlier this week in an investigation by The Intercept. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the expulsions “abhorrent.”
Before the men boarded a plane in May, officials told them that they were being sent on a short trip from Texas to another ICE facility in Louisiana. Many hours later, the plane landed in Djibouti.
The men — convicted criminals who had already served significant prison sentences — were held in a shipping container for weeks, shackled at the legs, on a U.S. military base in Djibouti. This past weekend, they were expelled to the violence-plagued nation of South Sudan.
The ICE deception revealed by The Intercept highlights the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to further its anti-immigrant agenda and deport people to so-called third countries to which they have no connections.
“Trump’s ICE treats immigrants as less than human, and this is a prime example,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who has been a leading voice on the expulsion of immigrants from the U.S. to third countries, and called ICE’s behavior “beyond cruel.”
“Trump’s ICE treats immigrants as less than human, and this is a prime example.”
Jayapal added: “Yes, any person convicted of serious crimes should be held accountable — but Trump has decided to violate due process rights and ship immigrants to South Sudan, a country so dangerous that the U.S. State Department currently has a ‘Do Not Travel’ warning for it. Third country deportations with no due process are wrong, period, and we will keep fighting these illegal actions in court.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., also called out the government for its deception. “What ICE did to these men is a flagrant violation of international law and basic human decency,” she told The Intercept. “Lying to people about where they’re being taken and secretly deporting them to a country that is in the midst of war and they have no ties to is cruel.”
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., called out President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for “blatantly lying to our neighbors as they disappear them to offshore prisons” and for flouting the rule of law, due process, and the Constitution. She called on Noem to resign.
While the eight men were in transit in May — thinking they were heading to Louisiana, but in fact en route to Africa — a federal judge intervened. Citing a prior nationwide injunction requiring the administration to give deportees advance notice of their destination and a “meaningful” chance to object if they believed they’d be in danger of harm, the eight men were not flown directly to South Sudan but were instead diverted to Djibouti.
The Supreme Court ruled on July 3 that the expulsion to South Sudan could go forward.
“The deportation of eight men to South Sudan – a country plagued by famine and brutal civil war – is abhorrent. The Trump administration’s barbaric practice of expelling immigrants to dangerous ‘third countries’ is an abuse of our justice system,” Sanders told The Intercept. “Every person in America is entitled to due process and counsel, regardless of their immigration status or alleged crimes.”
“The Trump administration’s barbaric practice of expelling immigrants to dangerous ‘third countries’ is an abuse of our justice system.”
The Trump administration celebrated the deportations. “After weeks of delays by activist judges that put our law enforcement in danger, ICE deported these 8 barbaric criminals [sic] illegal aliens to South Sudan,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Intercept in an email.
“In my district, families were warning us about how rogue and abusive ICE was for years,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., told The Intercept. “Now they are showing the world how cruel and lawless they are.”
The Intercept sent numerous requests for comment to ICE regarding the lies told to deportees about their supposed transfer to Louisiana. Spokesperson Miguel Alvarez acknowledged receipt of the questions but did not reply.
The men arrived in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, on July 5, and are now “under the care of the relevant authorities, who are screening them and ensuring their safety and well-being,” according to a spokesperson from South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
South Sudan is subject to a United Nations warning about the potential for full-scale civil war. The State Department advises those who travel to South Sudan to draft a will, establish a proof of life protocol with family members, and leave DNA samples with one’s medical provider.
“The conditions in South Sudan are bad enough that we shouldn’t be deporting South Sudanese people there, let alone sending noncitizens who have never lived there and have no support system on the ground,” said Omar. “This agency has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to uphold human rights. ICE is beyond reform and should be abolished. We need to start imagining what real justice and humane immigration policy actually looks like.”
“ICE is beyond reform and should be abolished. We need to start imagining what real justice and humane immigration policy actually looks like.”
South Sudan’s foreign ministry said they had received the deportees amid “ongoing bilateral engagement” between Juba and the Trump administration. The agreement to accept the eight men was “part of a broader framework of cooperation, both countries continue to engage constructively and with good faith on a range of matters, including political, economic, investment, security, humanitarian, and consular-related issues,” according to the spokesperson. “This engagement aims at normalizing relations, deepening bilateral cooperation, and addressing issues of mutual concern and interest.”
South Sudan is just the latest nation where the U.S. has expelled immigrants with no ties to that country. The Trump administration began using the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, as a foreign prison to disappear Venezuelan immigrants in March. The Intercept found that the U.S. has already explored deals with more than a quarter of the world’s nations to accept so-called third-country nationals. It has been employing strong-arm tactics with dozens of smaller, weaker, and economically dependent nations to expand its global gulag for expelled immigrants.
“From Guantanamo to El Salvador, Djibouti, and South Sudan, the use of offshore prisons is criminal, inhumane, wasteful, and dangerous,” Ramirez told The Intercept. “The Administration knows it, and they continue to lie to cover up their unlawful actions.”
The deals are being conducted in secret, and neither the State Department nor ICE will discuss them. With the green light from the Supreme Court, thousands of immigrants are in danger of being disappeared into this network of deportee dumping grounds.
The State Department, as usual, offered a disingenuous boilerplate response that cast the agreement with South Sudan as theoretical. “In some cases, we might work with other countries to facilitate the removal from the United States of nationals of third countries who have no legal basis to remain here,” said a spokesperson.
This spring, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of all visas for South Sudanese passport holders, and blocked the issuance of new visas, citing the country’s refusal to “accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner.”
Edmund Yakani, a longtime human rights defender in South Sudan and executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, called on his government to safeguard the eight men. “We urge our government not to use the eight deportees as bargaining chips,” he told The Intercept, imploring Juba to provide information on the condition of the men and the next steps awaiting them.
