How the U.S. bypassed rules to rush deportees to Africa

"But foreign government officials, immigration attorneys and court filings indicate that wasn't the case with at least two groups of deportees this summer that included a dozen migrants from Mexico, Vietnam and Jamaica who'd been convicted of crimes such as murder and robbery. It's unclear whether U.S. officials gave those deportees' home countries a chance to accept the return of their citizens - as has long been required by law - before sending them to the prisons in Africa."

"What they're saying: "The Trump administration has just skipped all of those steps" and simply moved immigrants "to a country that's willing to accept them - and that, we think, is a clear violation of statute," said Trina Realmuto, an attorney leading a class-action lawsuit againsst "third country" deportations. "DHS does not have unfettered discretion to decide where to send noncitizens," one court document argues in the lawsuit."

At least two groups of deportees this summer included a dozen migrants from Mexico, Vietnam and Jamaica convicted of violent crimes. Judges had issued orders to remove those deportees from the U.S., which under law requires designation of a preferred country or the deportee's country of origin as the priority destination. Sending deportees to a third country without ties is supposed to be a last resort. Officials moved migrants to African prisons despite unclear efforts to obtain home-country acceptance. Attorneys argue DHS lacks unfettered discretion and that the removals violate statutory requirements.

Read at Axios