A U.S. judge on Saturday criticised President Donald Trump’s administration for what she said appeared to be an intentional effort to bypass immigration laws by deporting Nigerian and Gambian migrants to Ghana.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, sitting in Washington, D.C., held an emergency hearing after lawyers said their clients feared torture or persecution if sent back to their home countries.
She later ordered the administration to explain by 9 p.m. EDT what steps it was taking to prevent Ghana from sending the migrants to Nigeria or Gambia.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama confirmed this week that the country had agreed with the U.S. to accept West African deportees and had already received 14 people.
Chutkan said it appeared the Trump administration struck the deal “to make an end run” around U.S. legal requirements against sending migrants to danger.
“These are not speculative concerns,” she said. “The concerns are real enough that the United States government agrees they shouldn’t be sent back to their home country.”
A lawsuit filed Friday said five migrants were taken from a Louisiana detention center, shackled, and placed on a U.S. military plane without being told their destination.
Some were allegedly kept in straitjackets for 16 hours. One plaintiff, a bisexual man, has already been sent to Gambia and gone into hiding. Four others remain in harsh conditions at a Ghanaian military facility.
The U.S. Department of Justice argued that it no longer had custody of the migrants and that the court could not intervene in diplomatic matters. The Department of Homeland Security denied that straitjackets were used but did not address the legal concerns.
The deportations have drawn criticism in Ghana, where opposition lawmakers called for the agreement’s suspension, saying it should have been approved by parliament and warning that it risks making Ghana appear aligned with “harsh and discriminatory” U.S. immigration policies.
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