The U.S. government has once again deported five undocumented immigrants with criminal records to an African country with which they have no ties, according to reports from major foreign media outlets including the Associated Press on July 15 (local time).
Tensions are rising due to an immigrant rights protest held in Los Angeles, USA. Photo by AFP Yonhap News
Tricia McLoughlin, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced on X (formerly Twitter) that "men of Vietnamese, Jamaican, Cuban, Yemeni, and Laotian nationality have arrived by plane in Eswatini." She added, "They were convicted of crimes such as child sexual assault and murder, and are considered so brutal that their home countries refused to accept their repatriation."
Eswatini is the last absolute monarchy in Africa, located between South Africa and Mozambique, with a population of 1.2 million.
After taking office, President Donald Trump launched a large-scale crackdown on undocumented immigrants and established a policy allowing deportation to third countries if the immigrants' countries of origin refused repatriation.
In May, the Trump administration deported about ten immigrants from countries including Myanmar, Vietnam, and Mexico, and earlier this month, deported eight undocumented immigrants to South Sudan.
The federal court in Massachusetts blocked the policy, citing the Convention Against Torture and stating that undocumented immigrants must be protected from deportation to countries where they could face torture. However, last month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration, allowing the resumption of third-country deportations for undocumented immigrants.
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