Immigrants can be deported from the United States to countries other than their own with as little as six hours’ notice — or no notice at all, according to a recent memo from a top official in Donald Trump’s administration.
The memo, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons, follows a Supreme Court decision that opens the door for officials to “immediately” begin deporting immigrants to so-called “third countries,” potentially uprooting thousands of people and sending them to countries where they do not have citizenship, family or any connection whatsoever.
Immigrants sent to countries where foreign officials have not provided the U.S. with “diplomatic assurances” that they won’t face torture or human rights abuses must be provided 24 hours’ notice, the memo says. Or, in “exigent” circumstances, only six hours’ notice.
Countries that do provide those “assurances” could be deported without any advance notice, according to the memo, which was first reported by The Washington Post. If the State Department believes those assurances are “credible,” then ICE may deport someone to that country “without the need for further procedures,” the memo says.
“This is the same operation we had in the past, that people can go to third countries,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Sunday as she defended the “incredibly important” memo to ensure “we get these worst of the worst out of our country.”
“Many times, if other countries aren’t receiving their own citizens, other countries have agreed that they would take them in … and take care of them until their home country would receive them,” she said. “That’s what this memo was confirming, and that’s all been negotiated with that country through the State Department.”
Targeted immigrants are likely to include thousands of people with final orders for their removal who are not able to be deported to their home countries because immigration judges have determined they face threats of violence or imminent danger there.
Other immigrants may not be able to return to their home countries because those governments — such as Cuba — do not cooperate with U.S. deportations.
In March, lawyers for a group of immigrants filed a lawsuit arguing that the government violated federal law by failing to let them challenge their removal to countries where they could be harmed or killed. Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to give those men “meaningful” notice and opportunity to challenge their deportation orders.
But on June 23, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked the judge’s decision.
“The ramifications of Supreme Court’s order will be horrifying; it strips away critical due process protections that have been protecting our class members from torture and death,” read a statement from Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.
The Supreme Court ruling followed a legal challenge surrounding eight deportees sent to war-torn South Sudan. After a weeks-long legal battle, the men landed in the country before midnight on July 4.
South Sudan’s government said the men, all of whom were convicted of crimes in the U.S., were “under the care of the relevant authorities” but did not disclose their whereabouts, condition or what will happen to them.
None of their family members have heard from them since they arrived there, according to attorneys.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a lengthy dissent blasting the conservative majority’s “abuse” of the court’s authority to consider yet another emergency request from the president.
The court is “rewarding lawlessness,” she said.
“In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution,” she wrote. “In this case, the Government took the opposite approach.”
Administration officials quickly celebrated the Supreme Court ruling.
“Fire up the deportation planes,” Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X. Noem posted a GIF of Trump dancing.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has held hundreds of immigrants at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and deported dozens of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a brutal maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Court documents revealed El Salvador’s government told the United Nations that deportees from the United States held inside that country are the responsibility of the U.S. government — contradicting statements from Trump administration officials.
A group hired by the U.N. accused the administration of state-sponsored “enforced disappearances.”
