Despite court wins, immigrants stay detained as ICE seeks to deport them
WASHINGTON— RV had been detained in a facility in California for six months when he won his case in immigration court in June.
He stated that he fled his native Cuba in 2024 after protesting against the government, for which he was imprisoned, surveilled and persecuted. He entered the United States illegally after being kidnapped in Mexico and told border agents he feared for his life.
An immigration court judge granted him protection from deportation to Cuba, and 21-year-old RV looked forward to reuniting with his family in Florida.
However, RV, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of government retaliation, was not released. He said agents at the detention center told him they would still find a way to deport him; If not to Cuba, then to Panama or Costa Rica.
“It’s very hard to wait,” he said in an interview. “It’s like they don’t want to admit I won.”
The caravan is among what immigration lawyers describe as a rising trend: Some immigrants who have gained protection from deportation to their home countries are being detained indefinitely.
Often this person is detained while the federal government appeals the decision or searches for another country willing to accept them.
The government has long had the ability to make such applications or look for another country to deport someone to; Department of Homeland Security usually there are 90 days finding somewhere else to send them.
However, in practice, such third country transports it was rarethat is, the person is usually released and allowed to remain in the U.S.
This practice changed during the Trump administration. Recent instructions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are to keep individuals in custody. A note from June 24For example, he notes that “field offices no longer have the option of voluntarily releasing aliens.”
At issue are cases involving immigrants who, rather than being granted asylum, are granted one of two types of immigration relief, known as “cease removal” orders and protection under the International Convention Against Torture. Both have a higher burden of proof than asylum, but do not provide a path to citizenship.
These forms of assistance differ from asylum in one important respect: Asylum provides protection against deportation anywhere, while others protect against deportation only to a country where the person risks being harmed or tortured.
Jennifer Norris, an attorney with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said the government’s actions now make deportation and withholding of protection under the anti-torture convention virtually meaningless.
“We have entered a dangerous period,” Norris said. “These are clients who did everything right. They won their case before the immigration judge, and now they are being treated as criminals and remain in custody even though the immigration judge ruled in their favor.”
Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network in Colorado, said double jeopardy rules do not apply in these cases, so the government has the opportunity to appeal if it loses.
“Here, they have a lot of control over whether someone remains in custody because if they appeal, that person could be in custody for at least six months or maybe years,” Lunn said.
Homeland Security did not respond to specific questions and declined to comment.
Lawyers representing immigrants in long-term detention say the government keeps people locked up in hopes of wearing their clients down so they give up their fight to stay in the United States
Ngựa, a Vietnamese man who wanted to be known by his family nickname meaning horse, has been detained in California since illegally crossing the southern border in March.
Ngựa fled Vietnam last year after being tortured by police officers who tried to extort him for a “protection tax”, according to his asylum application. When he refused, the officers beat him, threw him in jail, and threatened to kill him and his family.
An immigration judge recently denied Ngựa’s asylum request but granted him protection under the anti-torture convention. His charitable lawyers appealed his asylum denial.
In an interview conducted through a translator, he said he chose to seek safety in the United States because he believed the government of any other country would send him back to Vietnam. He said he did not expect U.S. officials to try to get rid of him.
Ngựa said ICE officers told him they knew they couldn’t send him back to Vietnam, but they would find another country willing to accept him. He said every morning an officer goes from dorm to dorm to ask if anyone wants to self-deport.
The thought of being sent away keeps him up at night, but the alternative is just as bad: “I’m afraid of being detained here for years,” he said.
DHS regulations In cases where “there is a significant likelihood that a detained alien will be deported in the reasonably foreseeable future,” continued detention may be permitted.
Such scenarios are becoming increasingly possible because a Supreme Court decision In June, the ability of immigration authorities to quickly deport people to countries with which they have no personal connections was expanded.
After the decision, İ. ICE issues guidance instructing agencies to give notice to immigrants scheduled to be sent to a third country, usually “at least 24 hours” but in “emergency cases” as little as six hours.
The guidance also said that the United States must obtain credible diplomatic assurances that deported persons will not be subjected to cruelty or torture.
Trump administration this year made brokerage agreements with many countriesGhana, El Salvador and South Sudan, which is on the brink of civil war, will also accept deportees.
“It has now become common practice for the government to hold onto people who have gained protection because, in many cases, they are actively seeking a third country that will accept them,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Causes Alliance.
Realmuto is one of the lead attorneys in the lawsuit challenging Homeland Security’s third-country relocation practices.
federal law It states that Homeland Security must first find alternative countries where the deported person has some personal connections and then, if that is “impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible,” find a country whose government is willing to accept them.
The Trump administration jumped right into that last resort, Realmuto said. As a result, many people deported to a third country are returned by authorities there to the country they originally fled from, he said.
Among them is Rabbiatu Kuyateh, 58, who fled the civil war in Sierra Leone 30 years ago and settled in Maryland until ICE agents detained him during an annual check-in this summer.
NBC News reported The judge said the agency deported him to Ghana because it prohibited ICE from deporting him back to Sierra Leone, where he was tortured. However, Ghanaian authorities forced him onto a bus to Sierra Leone.
In fiscal year 2024, 2,506 people were granted deportation or protection under the anti-torture convention, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Tens of thousands of immigrants like Kuyateh have also been given withholding or deferral assistance for decades, Realmuto said. He said such people could now face the risk of re-arrest as the government seeks to deport them to another country.
FB’s case of a 27-year-old Colombian woman who entered the United States through the San Ysidro port of entry in 2024 further illustrates the government’s approach to the anti-torture convention. FB asked to be identified by his initials for fear of retaliation from the US government.
In February, FB gained protection under the anti-torture convention. But instead of releasing him, Homeland Security said it tried to take him to Honduras, Guatemala or Brazil.
In September, FB’s lawyers petitioned federal court for his release.
“It’s a little difficult to argue that someone who’s been in custody for eight months is close to being dismissed,” said his attorney, Kristen Coffey.
Court records show the judge initially denied the petition after he claimed that ICE officials had booked a flight for him to Bolivia that would depart in three days.
But a month later, he was still in US custody.
In an order allowing FB’s release last month, U.S. district court judge Tanya Walton Pratt in Indiana said the government’s claim that FB would be deported soon “has been proven false” and that keeping him in custody “is contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
He was released the same day.
