Incoming Trump Administration Plans To Deport Some Migrants to Countries Other Than Their Own

The incoming Trump administration is preparing a list of countries to which it may deport migrants when their home countries refuse to accept them, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The countries on the list have included but may not be limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada, the sources said.

The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they do not know any of the people or the language and have no connection to the culture.

It is not clear if the migrants would be allowed to legally remain to work and live in the countries to which they are deported. {snip}

In 2019, during Trump’s first term, he sent migrants to Guatemala as part of an agreement with that country to accept people from other countries seeking asylum in the United States. Under that policy, asylum-seekers who had recently crossed into the U.S. were put on a plane to Guatemala without knowing where they were going {snip}

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Migrants who come from Venezuela, Cuba, China and other countries that are reluctant to accept back people who have emigrated to the United States have long posed an issue for U.S. authorities, who are barred by federal court orders from indefinitely detaining them. As a result, many migrants from those countries end up released into the United States, even if a judge has ordered them deported.

The plan to deport some migrants whose home countries are reluctant to accept them to third-party countries where they may have no connection would be a way for the new Trump administration to work around that issue as it creates what Trump has promised will be “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Trump also wants Mexico to accept non-Mexicans who are deported from the United States, the three sources told NBC News. In addition to accepting migrants who may be turned back at the border, which Mexico has already been doing, the incoming administration is pressuring Mexico to accept deportation flights of non-Mexicans living inside the United States. {snip}

The sources also told NBC News the incoming administration has a goal of deporting migrants within a week of their arrest and believes this policy will help expedite deportations.

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