{"id":14755,"date":"2025-07-16T21:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14755\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T21:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:42:10","slug":"us-sends-5-men-to-eswatini-under-trump-administrations-deportation-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14755\/","title":{"rendered":"US sends 5 men to Eswatini under Trump administration’s deportation program"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 The United States sent five immigrants it says were convicted of serious crimes to the African nation of Eswatini<\/a>, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said \u2014 an expansion of the Trump administration\u2019s largely secretive third-country deportation program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has already deported eight men<\/a> to another African country, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men, also described as violent criminals, are after it took custody of them nearly two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

In a late-night post on X Tuesday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said five men \u2014 citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos \u2014 had been deported to Eswatini. She said they were all convicted criminals and \u201cindividuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men \u201chave been terrorizing American communities\u201d but were now \u201coff of American soil,\u201d McLaughlin added.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape and one was a \u201cconfirmed\u201d gang member. Her social media posts included mug shots of the men and what she said were their criminal records and sentences. They were not named.<\/p>\n

The Eswatini government said Wednesday the men, which it referred to as \u201cprisoners\u201d and \u201cinmates,\u201d were being held in isolated units in unnamed correctional facilities in Eswatini but were considered to be in transit and would ultimately be sent back to their home countries.<\/p>\n

In a series of posts on X, the Eswatini government said it would collaborate with the United States and the U.N. migration agency to facilitate their return home and ensure \u201cdue process and respect for human rights is followed\u201d as part of their repatriation. The government gave no timeframe for that to happen.<\/p>\n

Four of the five countries where the men are from have historically been resistant to taking back some citizens when they\u2019re deported from the United States. That issue has been a reccurring problem for Homeland Security even before the Trump administration. Some countries refuse to take back any of their citizens, while others won\u2019t accept people who have committed crimes in the United States.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Eswatini's<\/p>\n

Eswatini\u2019s King Mswati III addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/Jason DeCrow, File)<\/p>\n

Eswatini\u2019s King Mswati III addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/Jason DeCrow, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Third-country removals raise concerns<\/p>\n

Trina Realmuto is a lawyer with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and one of the lawyers litigating a key case challenging the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s efforts to remove people to third countries without notice or giving them the opportunity to raise concerns over persecution or torture. Third countries are ones not specifically listed on the final order of removal issued by an immigration judge and usually not the country a deportee is from.<\/p>\n

Realmuto said part of the administration\u2019s goal with flights like the one to Eswatini is to send a message that people could be punished by being sent to \u201cfar-flung countries.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disturbing that we don\u2019t know what the exchange was to get Eswatini to accept these individuals. We don\u2019t know if there were diplomatic assurances and, if so, what they said. We don\u2019t know if these individuals were given notice,\u201d Realmuto said. \u201cIt\u2019s all done in secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A July 9 memo to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff lays out the agency\u2019s policy governing when and how ICE can send someone with a final order of removal to a \u201cthird country.\u201d <\/p>\n

If the United States has received assurances that the State Department deems credible from the third country that people the U.S. sends there won\u2019t be tortured, ICE can send them without any further procedures. <\/p>\n

If the U.S. hasn\u2019t received those assurances, ICE can still send the person there but first has to notify them, in a language the person understands, telling them where they\u2019re going. Time between notice and deportation is generally 24 hours, but can be as little as six hours.<\/p>\n

ICE doesn\u2019t have to ask if they fear being sent there. If the person raises concerns on their own, they\u2019re interviewed by an asylum officer and must show it\u2019s more likely than not they\u2019ll be persecuted or tortured there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an impossible standard to meet, especially if the person is not knowledgeable about the country,\u201d Realmuto said.<\/p>\n

Eswatini is an absolute monarchy<\/p>\n

Eswatini, previously called Swaziland, is a country of about 1.2 million people between South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the world\u2019s last remaining absolute monarchies and the last in Africa. King Mswati III<\/a> has ruled by decree since 1986. Political parties are effectively banned and pro-democracy groups have said for years that Mswati III has crushed political dissent<\/a>, sometimes violently.<\/p>\n

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Eswatini in 2021<\/a>, when dozens were killed, allegedly by security forces. Eswatini authorities have been accused of conducting political assassinations of pro-democracy activists<\/a> and imprisoning others.<\/p>\n

As with South Sudan, rights groups criticized the Trump administration\u2019s choice to send the deportees to Eswatini, given its record. <\/p>\n

Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA\u2019s director of refugee and migrant rights, said the U.S. State Department\u2019s own 2023 human rights report found credible accounts of unlawful or arbitrary killings by security forces in Eswatini, impunity for abuses, and harsh prison conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, anyone returned to this country is at risk of serious human rights violations,\u201d she said. \u201cThe cruelty is the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

US is seeking more deals<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said it is seeking more deals with African nations<\/a> to take deportees from the United States. Leaders from some of the five West African nations who met last week with President Donald Trump<\/a> at the White House said the issue of migration and their countries possibly taking deportees from the U.S. was discussed.<\/p>\n

Some nations have pushed back. Nigeria<\/a>, which wasn\u2019t part of that White House summit, said it has rejected pressure from the U.S. to take deportees who are citizens of other countries.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s foreign minister told The Associated Press last month that talks were underway with the U.S.<\/a> about a potential agreement to host deported migrants. A British government plan announced in 2022 to deport rejected asylum-seekers to Rwanda was ruled illegal by the U.K. Supreme Court last year.<\/p>\n

The U.S. also has sent hundreds of Venezuelans<\/a> and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador<\/a> and Panama.<\/p>\n

\u2018Not a dumping ground\u2019<\/p>\n

The eight men deported by the U.S. to war-torn South Sudan, where they arrived early this month, previously spent weeks at a U.S. military base in nearby Djibouti, located on the northeast border of Ethiopia, as the case over the legality of sending them there played out. <\/p>\n

The South Sudanese government has not released details of its agreement with the U.S. to take deportees, nor has it said what will happen to the men. A prominent civil society leader there said South Sudan was \u201cnot a dumping ground for criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysts say some African nations might be willing to take third-country deportees in return for more favorable terms from the U.S. in negotiations over tariffs, foreign aid and investment, and restrictions on travel visas.<\/p>\n

The Eswatini government said its arrangement with the U.S. posed no security threat to the people of Eswatini. \u201cThis exercise is the result of months of robust high-level engagements between the U.S. government and Eswatini,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Gumede reported from Johannesburg. Santana reported from Washington. More AP news on the Trump administration: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/donald-trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 The United States sent five immigrants it says were convicted of serious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1926,23,14115,1204,10987,3668,12,13904,793,790,14111,3140,14112,3,111,2486,14113,14116,6013,3767,14114,3770,6148,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,3999,2003,2002,800,965],"class_list":["post-14755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-africa","tag-america","tag-amy-fischer","tag-asia-pacific","tag-asylum","tag-cuba","tag-donald-trump","tag-eswatini","tag-general-news","tag-immigration","tag-jamaica","tag-latin-america","tag-mswati-iii","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-south-sudan","tag-south-sudan-government","tag-sudan-government","tag-supreme-court-of-the-united-states","tag-tricia-mclaughlin","tag-trina-realmuto","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vietnam","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}