US judge powerless to intervene in deportation of West Africans

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has said she is powerless to stop the return of four men in Ghana’s custody to countries where US immigration judges ruled they faced torture or persecution, ABC News reported on September 16th.

Chutkan has said the Trump administration appeared to be circumventing the U.N. Convention Against Torture by sending West Africans to Ghana, but that her “hands are tied.”

The ruling in a federal court in Washington on September 15th clears the way for 14 West Africans to be returned to their home countries from Ghana. They appear to be destined for Nigeria and Gambia despite US immigration judges finding they have reason to fear persecution or torture.

Chutkan wrote she was “alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out, especially in light of the government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution.” She went on to say it was the latest example of the Trump administration evading prohibitions on deportations.

The judge distinguished it from the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia who the administration wrongly sent to prison in El Salvador. In the Africa case, she wrote, the administration could legally send them to Ghana.

The ruling reflects the extreme approach taken by the administration towards immigration policy. In April, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated that they were “actively searching” for countries that would take in “some of the most despicable human beings.”  Faced with the decision by immigration judges that people can’t be sent to their home countries, the administration are increasingly trying to send immigrant to third countries with which they have created agreements to take deportees.

Ghana has joined Rwanda, who finalised an agreement on August 4th to accept 250 migrants, and Uganda in accepting US deportees. Lawyers for the four West Africans said early on September 15th that they remained in Ghana, which contradicted the Ghanian Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who stated all 14 had left for their home countries.

Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union has said: “We are obviously disappointed by the ruling but there’s no reason why the administration should require a court to tell them to obey the laws prohibiting the transfer of individuals to countries where it is likely they will be tortured and persecuted.”

The lawsuit said the migrants were held in “straightjackets” for 16 hours whilst flying to Ghana and on arrival were detained in “squalid conditions.” It went on to claim Ghana was doing the Trump administration’s “dirty work”.

Pushing back on claims the decision was an endorsement of Trump’s immigration policy, Ghanian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said Ghana did not receive any financial compensation from the US over the deportation.

“We just could not continue to take the suffering of our fellow West Africans,” the Minister said. “From now, the strict understanding that we have with the Americans is that we are only going to take West Africans.”

Nigeria’s government said it was not briefed about its nationals being sent to Ghana. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimebi Imomotimi Ebienfa said: “We have not rejected Nigerians deported to Nigeria. What we have only rejected is deportation of other nationals into Nigeria.”

The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request by AP News for a comment.

ABC News plus AP/Maghrebi.org