Pressroom

Nationwide - In response to reports of abuse and horrendous conditions during ICE’s third country deportations, Stacy Suh, Program Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:

“The Trump regime is attempting to normalize detaining people in other countries through third-country deportations as a new and expanded model of incarceration and deportation. This violence is an extension and continuation of the administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda, where ICE subjects people to horrific abuse every day. Third-country deportations serve to expel people out of sight and out of mind, but the reality is that often, when people are deported to third countries, they are imprisoned in remote or abusive prisons where their freedom of movement is extremely limited. To date, the administration has sent more than 23,000 people to 26 countries.

“Third country deportation and detention expansion are the same system, funded by the unprecedented $240 billion Congress handed to DHS to bolster Trump’s mass detention and deportation agenda. The human toll and cost to all Americans continues to be shocking  - escalating violence at the hands of ICE, including a record number of deaths in ICE detention this fiscal year, and multiple killings by ICE on our streets.

“Third country deportation is a cruel tactic designed to circumvent protections for people who cannot be deported their home country because they are at risk of torture or even death, or are otherwise unable to obtain the necessary documentation to travel. The US is deporting them to a third country that is often paid by the US to accept them. It is also another form of incarceration, as people are not able to move freely, are unable to see their loved ones, and are left in legal limbo because the government claims they are no longer in US custody.

“It’s not lost on us that ICE’s third-country deportation flights are leaving from Louisiana, a state with a massive detention infrastructure and current plans to expand family and child detention, jeopardizing families and community safety. Communities across Louisiana strongly oppose ICE’s expansion in the state and have been vigorously pushing back, calling instead for investment in real community needs like healthcare, education, and housing.

“These cruel policies do not make our communities safer; rather, Trump is disappearing and exiling people as a part of his unrelenting pursuit of terrorizing and demonizing migrants and immigrants, completely disregarding people's well-being and humanity. He is doing this with little to no details or oversight, and in defiance of court orders — all the while people languish in limbo.”

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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.​