Immigration attorneys say the United States has deported at least 20 people to various African nations over the past two months — and several are now being held in maximum-security prisons despite facing no criminal charges.
Legal aid lawyers in New York say the U.S. has sent at least five men to Eswatini. For the first time, one of them has been identified as a Jamaican national who completed a criminal sentence in the U.S., only to end up imprisoned again overseas.
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Eswatini is among a growing list of African countries accepting noncitizen deportees who have no ties there — including Rwanda, South Sudan and, most recently, Uganda. Several more African nations are reportedly considering similar deals.
Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told Scripps News that deportations to third countries are not new. But, she said, the Trump administration is moving faster and expanding the number of destinations.
"The key concern is not just the number of people that are being sent to third country, third countries where they're not from, but also that they're not necessarily given the review and the due process to actually consider where those people would be in violation of their protection or asylum claims by being sent a different country," Soto said.
He added that the accelerated process could lead to deportees being sent to unsafe places, potentially violating international law.
Some countries have refused to take them. Nigeria’s foreign minister, quoting the rap group Public Enemy, said, "I can't do nothing for you, man," when rejecting hundreds of Venezuelan deportees.
Uganda has also drawn a red line, refusing to accept deportees with criminal records, including El Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a policy that Soto said underscores a disconnect.
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"That is in counter to what the Trump administration is suggesting, that they're focusing on criminals who are the most violent of them all," Soto said. "... Most countries know they did not want to receive criminals from other countries into their country, and therefore have those stipulations. But I do think it shows a clear mismatch."
That disconnect could slow the White House’s plans to deport, in its words, “the most despicable human beings” to third countries.
So far, deportees have been mostly men U.S. officials say were convicted of violent crimes here. But because the deportation process is shrouded in secrecy, it’s unclear where many end up.
In Eswatini, the five deported men are being held in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison without charges. A lawyer for two of them told Scripps News they have not been told why they’re detained, and attorneys have been barred from visiting.
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