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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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A lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of immigrants deported by President Donald Trump's administration to Ghana said they were held in "straitjackets" and shackled for 16 hours.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that the plaintiffs had been held for days in "squalid conditions" in an open-air detention facility.
Newsweek reached out to the group behind the suit, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, for comment via email Friday afternoon. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the allegations in a later statement.
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Why It Matters
The filing is the latest in a string of legal challenges to the way the Trump administration has carried out its immigration policies, including attempts to block removals to countries immigrants are not citizens of.
The White House has insisted that it is seeking to deport individuals who have broken immigration laws and often committed additional crimes.
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What To Know
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of five migrants, says passengers were awoken in the middle of the night on September 5 and were not told where they were going until hours into the flight on a U.S. military cargo plane.
The migrants have been detained for five days in Ghana in "squalid conditions and surrounded by armed military guards in an open-air detention facility," called Dema Camp, the complaint says. Conditions are "abysmal and deplorable," with tents for shelter and little running water.
The migrants are not from Ghana and have been told they will be sent to other countries that have been determined to be too dangerous by U.S. immigration judges—making it the latest legal challenge to the Trump administration's practice of sending people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and several African nations.
The lawsuit was filed a day after Ghana's president confirmed the arrival of the 14 deportees. Ghana joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S., an approach whose legality has been questioned by lawyers and human rights organizations.
None of the 14 deportees were originally from Ghana, and the five West Africans who filed the lawsuit did not have ties with the country or designate it as a potential country of removal, according to the complaint.
Plaintiffs are identified only by initials in the complaint. Four are "in immediate danger of being sent on, within hours, to their countries." One has already been removed to The Gambia and is in hiding, despite having "repeatedly stated his fear" of returning to his home nation.
Three plaintiffs are from Nigeria and two from The Gambia. The lawsuit says 14 West Africans were taken from their cells at an ICE detention center in Alexandria, Louisiana.
An emergency hearing took place on Friday, with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan accusing the Trump administration of being underhanded in its handling of the case.
What People Are Saying
The complaint states: "Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work. Despite the minimal, pass-through involvement of the Ghanaian government, defendants' objective is clear: deport individuals who have been granted fear-based relief from being sent to their countries of origin to those countries anyway, in contravention to the rulings of U.S. immigration judges and U.S. immigration law."
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, told Newsweek in a statement: "Any allegations detainees on this flight were in 'straitjackets' are FALSE. This is more smears against our brave ICE law enforcement.
"This type of garbage is contributing to our officers facing a more than 1,000 percent increase in assaults against them. With everything going on in this country, do you really want to repeat these FALSE smears against ICE law enforcement?"
What's Next
The complaint asks the judge to immediately halt deportations to their countries of origin. Chutkan is weighing what powers she has, with the deportees already out of the U.S.
Reporting by The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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