ICE Accelerates Deportations to Third Nations with Only 6 Hours’ Notice
(MENAFN) US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has adopted a controversial policy allowing the deportation of migrants to nations other than their own with as little as six hours’ notice, even when those countries have not assured the migrants’ safety, according to reports on Saturday.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons announced that a recent Supreme Court ruling has enabled these deportations to recommence “immediately,” including to countries lacking “diplomatic assurances” against torture or persecution, as reported by media.
Typically, deportees are given a 24-hour notice, but in “exigent circumstances,” the removal process can be expedited to just six hours, the agency’s memo reveals.
This new directive represents a major shift from prior policies, which rarely involved sending individuals to third countries.
Legal experts warn this change could jeopardize thousands of migrants, many of whom were previously considered vulnerable if forced to return to their homelands.
“It puts thousands of lives at risk of persecution and torture,” stated Trina Realmuto, head of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which is actively challenging the ruling in court.
Lyons’s instructions allow for accelerated removals based on assurances accepted by the US State Department.
If such assurances are absent, deportations will proceed unless migrants express fear within the brief notice period.
Those who do express fear will be subject to screenings within 24 hours to determine their eligibility for protection under US law and the Convention Against Torture, ratified by the US in 1994.
The Supreme Court’s June 23 decision overturned a lower court injunction that had halted the policy.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting, cautioned: “In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution.”
Opponents, including attorneys and immigrant advocates, argue the memo’s procedures do not provide sufficient time or legal support for migrants to challenge potentially dangerous deportations.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, lead counsel in a related legal challenge, said: “This is a category of people who understood themselves to be out of the woods.”
The Department of Homeland Security has not yet disclosed how many migrants might be impacted by this new policy.
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