Judge Rules ICE's "Third-Country" Deportations Are Unconstitutional

"This new policy - which purports to stand in for the protections Congress has mandated - fails to satisfy due process for a raft of reasons. Nobody really knows anything about these purported 'assurances.' It is not fine, nor is it legal [to send people to an] unfamiliar and potentially dangerous country without granting them any legal recourse."

"A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a policy used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to countries where they are not citizens is an unconstitutional denial of their due process rights. So-called Third-Country Removals were adopted as official ICE policy in a memo last year, allowing for such deportations to take place with as little as six hours' notice."

A federal judge in Boston ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Third-Country Removals policy is unconstitutional and violates due process rights. The policy, adopted as official ICE procedure last year, permits deportations of undocumented immigrants to countries where they lack citizenship with as little as six hours' notice. Judge Brian E. Murphy determined the policy fails to provide adequate time for migrants to challenge deportation actions. The government defended the policy by claiming it provides assurances protecting migrants from persecution in destination countries, but the judge rejected this argument, stating the assurances lack transparency and credibility. Murphy emphasized that sending people to unfamiliar and potentially dangerous countries without legal recourse violates constitutional protections.

Read at Truthout