The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Trump administration could resume deporting immigrants to countries other than their own without any chance to object on the grounds that they might be tortured. This may clear a legal path for the government to send men held at a U.S military base in Djibouti to the war-ravaged nation of South Sudan where they face an uncertain future, including the possibility of indefinite detention. Three justices, in a dissent, said the ruling exposes “thousands to the risk of torture or death.”
That may be a best-case scenario.
An Intercept investigation finds that the Trump administration has been hard at work trying to expand its global gulag for expelled immigrants, exploring deals with a quarter of the world’s nations to accept so-called third-country nationals — deported persons who are not their citizens.
To create this archipelago of injustice, the U.S. government is employing strong-arm tactics with dozens of smaller, weaker, and economically dependent nations. The deals are being conducted in secret, and neither the State Department nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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 Supreme Court’s ruling leaves thousands of people vulnerable to deportation to third countries where they face torture or death, even if the deportations are clearly unlawful,” said Leila Kang, a staff attorney at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a group that represents immigrants who filed suit.
Read HERE the full article by The Intercept
