Judge says she can’t help deportees Trump admin sent to Ghana, despite torture fears

A federal judge lamented Monday that the Trump administration had doomed five West African men it deported to the prospect of torture and death in their home countries — even though they had won protection from U.S. immigration courts.

But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she was unable to offer any help to the deported immigrants, four of whom appear to now sit in a prison camp in Ghana awaiting transfer to Nigeria or The Gambia. Because they now are in the custody of the Ghanaian government, she said, her “hands are tied.”

“The court does not reach this conclusion lightly,” wrote Chutkan, an Obama appointee. “It is aware of the dire consequences Plaintiffs face if they are repatriated. And it is alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out, especially in light of the government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution.”

Chutkan’s ruling came after four days of intense litigation brought by the five men, who were abruptly sent to Ghana earlier this month under a secretive agreement reached between the Trump administration and the Ghanaian government. Chutkan, who held hearings on Friday and Saturday, agonized over what she viewed were her limited options to offer relief; her court, she emphasized, had no power to order any foreign policy moves by the Trump administration or to make demands of Ghana’s government.

Lawyers for the men say that as soon as they reached Ghana, they were informed that they would be quickly transferred to their home countries, even though they had won protection from U.S. immigration courts from being returned to their homes for fear of persecution or torture. They allege that the Trump administration used Ghana to circumvent those protections. They had asked Chutkan to order the Trump administration to disclose details of its arrangement with Ghana to determine whether there might be legal options to demand the return of their clients.

Despite her ruling, Chutkan spent the bulk of her 16-page opinion decrying the Trump administration’s middle-of-the-night deportation operations. It occurred most recently in the case of hundreds of Guatemalan children ordered deported over Labor Day weekend — until a judge intervened. Chutkan also cites the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man deported without warning to his home country despite a court order barring him from being sent there.

Chutkan said the transfer of the five men to Ghana “may have been designed to evade” their court-ordered protections from torture.

“For over three decades, through five presidential administrations, this country has adhered to its obligations to treat refugees humanely and to comply with the Constitutional requirement of due process, which is afforded to all persons present in this country, regardless of their citizenship status. In recent months, the government has embarked upon a series of deportations which signal a drastic change of course,” Chutkan wrote.

“In several cases, authorities have rounded up — often at night and with little or no notice — men, women, and children being held in detention facilities, hastily put them on planes and transferred them to other countries, where they have no connections, do not speak the language, and are unable to contact family or counsel,” the judge continued.

The current status of the men is unclear. Lawyers said one was sent to The Gambia before they were able to get before Chutkan for a hearing Friday. The Associated Press reported Monday that a senior Ghanaian government official said all the men who arrived from the U.S. had already been deported, along with others not part of the lawsuit, to their home countries.

However, lawyers for the deported men said in a court filing Monday evening that they had just spoken to their clients and they remained in Ghana, under armed guard at a remote location known as Dema Camp.

Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about the ruling: “We are obviously disappointed by the ruling, but there’s no reason why the administration should require a court to tell them to obey the laws prohibiting the transfer of individuals to countries where it’s likely they will be tortured and persecuted.”

Attorneys for the men did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling, which was released after 11 p.m. Eastern Monday. Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security also did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.