A federal lawsuit filed recently by four West African migrants, supported by Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), accuses US immigration authorities of subjecting them to extreme treatment during their deportation to Ghana. The allegations include the use of straitjackets for several hours, which the plaintiffs argue violates U.S. immigration laws and established judicial precedents. On September 5, these individuals—three from Nigeria and two from the Gambia—were reportedly transported from a detention facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, to Ghana on a US military cargo plane, as outlined here.
The lawsuit highlights that these migrants had been granted fear-based relief by immigration judges, which should have legally prevented their removal to their homeland due to risks of persecution or torture. Nonetheless, the plaintiffs assert that the US deported them via a “third country” strategy, designating Ghana as a so-called “transit hub” to bypass such protections. The travelers were allegedly uninformed of their destination, shackled, and provided only minimal sustenance—bread and water—during the journey, with four allegedly restrained in straitjackets for about 16 hours.
This legal complaint asks the court to urgently halt their deportations back to their countries of origin. Recent strategies under the Trump administration involved arrangements with several African nations, such as Eswatini, Rwanda, and Uganda, to accept deportees under conditions unlinked to these countries. The Supreme Court authorized this practice after litigation in June, as reported by another source.
Noah Baron, Assistant Director of Litigation at AAAJ, criticized this pattern of deporting individuals to nations where they have protection against return, acknowledging the administration’s awareness of the potential grave dangers such actions impose. This lawsuit not only sheds light on the individual allegations of mistreatment but also raises broader questions about the recent practices in U.S. immigration enforcement policies. As these legal proceedings unfold, they may potentially influence how these policies are scrutinized and applied in future cases.