_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a new wave of third country deportations, recently sending a flight of convicted criminal aliens to the country of Eswatini.
That flight carried individuals with convictions for murder and child rape from countries that refuse to accept their own citizens back. This follows a Supreme Court decision last month giving the administration the authority to deport migrants to countries other than their own.
_THE FACTS_
A recent deportation flight sent five criminal aliens to Eswatini, a small nation in Southern Africa.
The deportees came from countries that refused to take them back, including Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the individuals "uniquely barbaric" who had been "terrorizing American communities."
The Trump administration argued that deporting migrants to third-party countries is needed to deport "the worst of the worst" criminal aliens.
The administration had previously deported violent illegal migrants to South Sudan.
The Supreme Court paved the way for these removals by blocking a lower court order that had stalled them.
The White House is pushing other African nations, such as Liberia and Senegal, to accept similar third country deportees.
President Donald Trump personally urged five African leaders to take in deported migrants in a White House meeting.
ICE can now deport migrants to these countries with as little as six hours’ notice under certain circumstances.
The US often incentivizes these deportations with funding; for example, El Salvador received at least $5 million to accept third-party deportees.
_INSIGHTS_
In May, the Solicitor General argued before the Supreme Court that without effective removal tools, "criminal aliens are often allowed to stay in the United States for years on end, victimizing law-abiding Americans."
One of those tools is removing migrants to any country that would be willing to take them, even if the migrant had no connection there.
Trump’s new aggressive approach signals a shift away from a system bogged down by procedural delays that often benefit criminals and toward a more rapid-fire deportation process.
