Third-Country Deportations Undermine Asylum Laws and Global Norms

Key Quotes

"The guy who built a brand around being against regime change in foreign countries, taking over Venezuela and gunning for Greenland, it's a bit surprising to me, I gotta admit. Don't ask me who's in charge, because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very contrary. What does that mean, "who's in charge"? But one thing Trump has been super clear about is his opposition to asylum. He does not want asylum seekers coming to the US. The ones that do come, he's deporting them, often to countries they aren't from, countries they've never even heard of: Eswatini, South Sudan, Costa Rica."

Miles Bryan highlights the surprising shift in Donald Trump's foreign policy approach, contrasting his past stance against regime change with his current clear opposition to asylum. Bryan points out that Trump is actively deporting asylum seekers to unfamiliar countries, underscoring the administration's aggressive stance against those seeking refuge in the US.

"When we came to the border, a supervisor, I think a woman, asked us, asked why we came here. I told her we came here to ask about political asylum. She told, 'We've got new president, we don't give political asylum anymore. Read the newspapers,' and something like that."

This quote illustrates the immediate and blunt rejection of asylum claims upon arrival at the US border under a new administration. The asylum seeker recounts being told that political asylum is no longer granted, suggesting a significant policy shift that directly impacts individuals seeking protection.

"This is all legal because deportation is categorized as a civil process, not a criminal one. Basically, deportation is not legally considered a punishment. It's considered a sovereign right of the federal government to deport someone. And as a result, people in deportation proceedings just don't have the same level of constitutional protection."

The text explains that deportation is legally classified as a civil matter, not a criminal one, which is why it is not considered punishment. This distinction, described as a "legal fiction," allows individuals in deportation proceedings to have fewer constitutional protections compared to those in criminal cases.

"The Trump administration deporting a Venezuelan asylum seeker who has no criminal record and who his family says is not a gang member. This footage distributed by the Salvadoran government shows the men arriving at the prison, shackled. He accused them of being the worst of the worst gang members. Our reporting at ProPublica and with Venezuelan reporting partners, we found that the government knew that the vast majority of these men had never been convicted of any crimes in the United States, but they were sort of rounded up and whisked away to this prison where they were held for months before they were released in a prisoner exchange."

Mika Rosenberg reports on the Trump administration's deportation of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador, noting that these individuals, including asylum seekers with no criminal records, were labeled as gang members. Rosenberg's reporting with ProPublica indicates that the government was aware that most of these men were not convicted criminals, yet they were detained in a maximum-security prison.

"All of these changes are happening at a time where there's really an unprecedented explosion of need of people fleeing conflicts all over the world. Trump is part of a wave of politicians at the same time who have capitalized on concerns about rising immigration to countries across the globe. Politicians in places like Europe or even Canada have embraced some of the views that the Trump administration has about tamping down on migration, limiting access to asylum."

The text highlights that current shifts in asylum policy are occurring amidst a global increase in people fleeing conflict. Mika Rosenberg observes that Donald Trump is part of a broader political trend where politicians worldwide, including in Europe and Canada, are adopting stricter stances on migration and asylum access, influenced by concerns about rising immigration.