A multinational human rights commission held a hearing this week that looked at the Trump administration's practice of sending migrants and asylum seekers to countries other than the ones they're from.
Almost two dozen rights organizations from the U.S. and elsewhere presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this week in Guatemala City during a hearing about so-called third country deportations — which are done through deals the U.S. has made with almost 30 different countries.
Maragaret Cargioli, directing attorney, policy and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, says the commission heard from migrants like a Venezuelan man sent to CECOT, the maximum security prison in El Salvador.
“We’re at the one year anniversary of that moment where we saw those men getting off the planes and it’s a time to really commemorate what happened to them,” Cargioli said. “It’s important that the people who are being removed to these third countries are not silenced.”
The Trump administration used a war-time authority to send at least 240 Venezuelan men to CECOT without due process last March. An analysis by Libertarian think-tank Cato Institute found almost 85% of those sent to the prison had no criminal convictions in the U.S.
Cargioli says many of the men have since been sent back to Venezuela, but never got the chance to clear their names in court.
In February, a federal court in Boston ruled the practice of sending people to third countries without notice is unconstitutional. The administration has appealed the order and the case is ongoing.
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