US deports immigrants from Jamaica, Cuba to African kingdom of Eswatini

Summary

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United States sent five immigrants it says were convicted of serious crimes to the African nation of Eswatini, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said — an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation program.The U.S. has already deported eight men to another African country, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men, also described as violent criminals, are after it took custody of them nearly two weeks ago.In a late-night post on X Tuesday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said five men — citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos — had been deported to Eswatini. She said they were all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.” The men “have been terrorizing American communities” but were now “off of American soil,” McLaughlin added.McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape and one was a “confirmed” gang member. Her social media posts included mug shots of the men and what she said were their criminal records and sentences. They were not named. The Eswatini government said Wednesday the men, which it referred to as “prisoners” and “inmates,” were being held in isolated units in unnamed correctional facilities in Eswatini but were considered to be in transit and would ultimately be sent back to their home countries. In a series of posts on X, the Eswatini government said it would collaborate with the United States and the U.N. migration agency to facilitate their return home and ensure “due process and respect for human rights is followed” as part of their repatriation. The government gave no timeframe for that to happen. Four of the five countries where the men are from have historically been resistant to taking b...