WASHINGTON: A US judge said any effort by the Trump administration to deport migrants to Libya would clearly violate a prior court order barring officials from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first weighing whether they risk persecution or torture if sent there.
US District Judge Brian Murphy issued an order restricting their removal on Wednesday (May 7) after Reuters, citing three US officials, reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration may for the first time deport migrants to Libya despite previous US condemnation of Libya’s harsh treatment of detainees.
Two of the officials said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change.
Reuters could not determine how many migrants would be sent to Libya or the nationalities of those the administration was eyeing for deportation, including whether any were Libyan nationals. The relatives of one Mexican national told Reuters he had been instructed to sign a document allowing for his deportation to the African nation.
Immigration rights advocates said in court filings that individuals potentially subject to deportation to Libya also included Filipino, Laotian and Vietnamese migrants.
When asked about the planned deportations, President Donald Trump said he did not know whether they were happening.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Homeland Security,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
The Pentagon referred queries to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
A State Department spokesperson said: “We do not discuss the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments.”
Libya’s Government of National Unity said on Wednesday it rejected the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. It also said there was no coordination with the United States regarding the transfer of migrants.
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, also rejected the idea of the country taking migrants deported from the United States, saying in a statement that it “violates the sovereignty of the homeland”.
After news broke of the potential flight to Libya, lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit made an emergency request that Murphy block migrants from being deported to Libya or any country en route to there, including Saudi Arabia, without ensuring their due process rights were met.
Murphy, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote: “If there is any doubt — the Court sees none — the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as Plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information, would clearly violate this Court’s Order.”
Trump, a Republican who made immigration a major issue during his election campaign, has launched aggressive enforcement action since taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
