New Human Rights First Report: Trump Administration Systematically Detaining and Deporting People Granted Protection by U.S. Immigration Judges

Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration is systematically detaining people granted protection by U.S. immigration judges and deporting them to countries where they have no nationality, status, or ties, according to a new Human Rights First report, "In the Middle of the Night, They Come and Get You": Systematic U.S. Government Pursuit of Refugees and Torture Survivors Granted Protection by U.S. Judges.

The report, based on more than 50 interviews with directly impacted individuals and legal service providers as well as analysis of U.S. government data and publicly available habeas corpus petitions, finds that the Trump administration has forcibly transported at least 310 people with withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to 15 third countries, including some of the most dangerous places in the world.

The report also shows how generalized diplomatic assurances made by many foreign governments entering into third-country removal agreements with the U.S. government are meaningless and routinely violated. At least 114 individuals sent to 10 third countries have since been returned to the very countries where a U.S. judge had found they more likely than not face persecution and/or torture, even though the vast majority of the written agreements contain purported diplomatic assurances.

"This policy subjects people to profound harm in U.S. detention and in the third countries to which they are forcibly sent. It is designed to terrorize communities nationwide; people now fear that anyone could be taken from their family at any moment and sent to a country they have never set foot in," said Robyn Barnard, Vice President, Refugee and Immigrant Rights, Human Rights First. "Congress must investigate these agreements, the diplomatic assurances woven into them, the tax payer dollars wasted on them, and the systematic targeting for deportation of people U.S. law is supposed to protect."

In the past three decades, 53,000 people have been granted withholding of removal or CAT protections, according to Human Rights First’s new analysis of government data. These are court-ordered grants of protection that prevent people from being sent back to their countries of origin. Some of the individuals granted this form of protection were not able to receive asylum because of bars to protection, some of them subsequently found to be illegal, that are unrelated to the merits of their protection claims.

United Nations Human Rights Experts, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Ibero-American human rights institutions have all condemned the third country agreements entered into by the U.S. government for triggering human rights abuses.

Stories featured in the report include:

• ICE detained a Colombian torture survivor with CAT withholding and deported her without a fear interview to the Democratic Republic of the Congo weeks later. She was not told what country she would be sent to until less than 48 hours before the flight, at which point she expressed fear to ICE in writing. They responded that they would take this under consideration, but later transported her to the airport.
• A trans woman from El Salvador who survived years of sexual and physical violence won withholding of removal, but was kept detained by ICE until, one day, she was given six hours of notice that she would be removed to Mexico—where she had been sexually assaulted while transiting and where trans people are at risk of violence and homicide. Although she expressed her fear, she was shackled and boarded onto a bus. Her deportation was narrowly averted when her attorney at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network filed an emergency motion in federal court.
• An elderly pastor with CAT protection who survived imprisonment and severe beatings in his country of origin was forcibly sent to Cameroon. Detained upon arrival and suffering health issues, he could not bear it anymore and returned to his country of origin, according to an advocate who spoke with Human Rights First.
• A woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who won withholding of removal was deported to Cameroon after over a year in ICE detention. Suffering from debilitating medical issues and unable to access medical treatment for months in Cameroon, she felt she had no choice but to return to her country of origin to attempt to treat her condition, despite the persecution she had suffered there. Terrified of further harm, she planned to flee again as soon as she could.
• The wife of a Venezuelan political activist who was recognized as a refugee and granted withholding of removal reported that after ICE detained her husband at a check-in, they repeatedly pressured him to accept removal to Mexico, “telling him that if he doesn’t, he will spend five to ten years in prison, that they will file charges against him. It is psychological torture... they told him that he had to accept Mexico because it was the best option, otherwise they were going to send him to Africa.”
• A refugee from West Africa who was granted withholding of removal shared that he was woken up at 1am after a year and half of detention and informed that he would be released, but “it was just a trick.” Instead, he was put in chains and transported to the airport, where he was told that he would be flown to Arizona and then to Ghana, a country he is not from. When he resisted, officers forced him onto the ground, tied him down with a belt, and carried him on a stretcher onto the plane. His deportation to Ghana was narrowly avoided due to a federal court emergency order issued in response to a petition filed by his attorneys.

Read the full report: "In the Middle of the Night, They Come and Get You": Systematic U.S. Government Pursuit of Refugees and Torture Survivors Granted Protection by U.S. Judges.