House Democrat Calls on Kristi Noem To Resign Over ICE Lies

Members of Congress expressed outrage at U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deceiving eight men who were not long ago deported to South Sudan as revealed earlier this week in an probe by The Intercept Sen Bernie Sanders I-Vt called the expulsions abhorrent Before the men boarded a plane in May bureaucrats recounted them that they were being sent on a short trip from Texas to another ICE facility in Louisiana Plenty of hours later the plane landed in Djibouti Related ICE Revealed They Were Being Flown to Louisiana Their Flight Landed in Africa The men convicted criminals who had already served crucial prison sentences were held in a shipping container for weeks shackled at the legs on a U S military base in Djibouti This past weekend they were expelled to the violence-plagued nation of South Sudan The ICE deception revealed by The Intercept highlights the lengths to which the U S regime will go to further its anti-immigrant agenda and deport people to so-called third countries to which they have no connections Trump s ICE treats immigrants as less than human and this is a prime example mentioned Rep Pramila Jayapal D-Wash who has been a leading voice on the expulsion of immigrants from the U S to third countries and called ICE s behavior beyond cruel Trump s ICE treats immigrants as less than human and this is a prime example Jayapal added Yes any person convicted of serious crimes should be held accountable but Trump has decided to violate due process rights and ship immigrants to South Sudan a country so dangerous that the U S State Department currently has a Do Not Progress warning for it Third country deportations with no due process are wrong period and we will keep fighting these illegal actions in court Rep Ilhan Omar D-Minn also called out the regime for its deception What ICE did to these men is a flagrant violation of international law and basic human decency she described The Intercept Lying to people about where they re being taken and secretly deporting them to a country that is in the midst of war and they have no ties to is cruel Rep Delia Ramirez D-Ill called out President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Defense Secretary Kristi Noem for blatantly lying to our neighbors as they disappear them to offshore prisons and for flouting the rule of law due process and the Constitution She called on Noem to resign While the eight men were in transit in May thinking they were heading to Louisiana but in fact en way to Africa a federal judge intervened Citing a prior nationwide injunction requiring the administration to give deportees advance notice of their destination and a meaningful chance to object if they held they d be in danger of harm the eight men were not flown directly to South Sudan but were instead diverted to Djibouti The Supreme Court ruled on July that the expulsion to South Sudan could go forward The deportation of eight men to South Sudan a country plagued by famine and brutal civil war is abhorrent The Trump administration s barbaric practice of expelling immigrants to dangerous third countries is an abuse of our justice system Sanders informed The Intercept Every person in America is entitled to due process and counsel regardless of their immigration status or alleged crimes The Trump administration s barbaric practice of expelling immigrants to dangerous third countries is an abuse of our justice system The Trump administration celebrated the deportations After weeks of delays by activist judges that put our law enforcement in danger ICE deported these barbaric criminals sic illegal aliens to South Sudan DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin communicated The Intercept in an email In my district families were warning us about how rogue and abusive ICE was for years Rep Rashida Tlaib D-Mich described The Intercept Now they are showing the world how cruel and lawless they are The Intercept sent numerous requests for comment to ICE regarding the lies described to deportees about their supposed transfer to Louisiana Spokesperson Miguel Alvarez acknowledged receipt of the questions but did not reply The men arrived in Juba South Sudan s capital on July and are now under the care of the relevant administration who are screening them and ensuring their safety and well-being according to a spokesperson from South Sudan s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation South Sudan is subject to a United Nations warning about the expected for full-scale civil war The State Department advises those who advance to South Sudan to draft a will establish a proof of life protocol with family members and leave DNA samples with one s curative provider The conditions in South Sudan are bad enough that we shouldn t be deporting South Sudanese people there let alone sending noncitizens who have never lived there and have no sponsorship system on the ground announced Omar This agency has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to uphold human rights ICE is beyond revision and should be abolished We need to start imagining what real justice and humane immigration initiative definitely looks like ICE is beyond restructuring and should be abolished We need to start imagining what real justice and humane immigration protocol authentically looks like South Sudan s foreign ministry stated they had received the deportees amid ongoing bilateral engagement between Juba and the Trump administration The agreement to accept the eight men was part of a broader framework of cooperation both countries continue to engage constructively and with good faith on a range of matters including political economic stake safety humanitarian and consular-related issues according to the spokesperson This engagement aims at normalizing relations deepening bilateral cooperation and addressing issues of mutual concern and interest South Sudan is just the latest nation where the U S has expelled immigrants with no ties to that country The Trump administration began using the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca El Salvador as a foreign prison to disappear Venezuelan immigrants in March The Intercept discovered that the U S has already explored deals with more than a quarter of the world s nations to accept so-called third-country nationals It has been employing strong-arm tactics with dozens of smaller weaker and economically dependent nations to expand its global gulag for expelled immigrants Related Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE From Guantanamo to El Salvador Djibouti and South Sudan the use of offshore prisons is criminal inhumane wasteful and dangerous Ramirez narrated The Intercept The Administration knows it and they continue to lie to cover up their unlawful actions The deals are being conducted in secret and neither the State Department nor ICE will discuss them With the green light from the Supreme Court thousands of immigrants are in danger of being disappeared into this architecture of deportee dumping grounds The State Department as usual offered a disingenuous boilerplate response that cast the agreement with South Sudan as theoretical In particular cases we might work with other countries to facilitate the removal from the United States of nationals of third countries who have no legal basis to remain here reported a spokesperson This spring Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the revocation of all visas for South Sudanese passport holders and blocked the issuance of new visas citing the country s refusal to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner Edmund Yakani a longtime human rights defender in South Sudan and executive director of the Group Empowerment for Progress Organization called on his authorities to safeguard the eight men We urge our leadership not to use the eight deportees as bargaining chips he stated The Intercept imploring Juba to provide information on the condition of the men and the next procedures awaiting them The post House Democrat Calls on Kristi Noem To Resign Over ICE Lies appeared first on The Intercept