Democrats look to investigate third-party deportations after midterms - Semafor
Democrats are warning that the Trump administration’s secretive third-country deportation program could face a full congressional investigation if the party wins the majority in one or both chambers in November.
The warnings follow two recent flashpoints: In Equatorial Guinea, police were filmed pointing guns at migrants deported from the US during a dispute at a hotel housing deportees.
Separately, the administration deported an Afghan man to the Central African Republic despite a prior judicial protection order over fears his family could face Taliban retaliation. One of the man’s brothers served in the Afghan National Army while another was a US-trained pilot killed by the Taliban.
“The Trump administration’s abuse of third-country deportation deals is abhorrent, and is a betrayal of due process and our obligations under US and international law,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He pledged to “continue to investigate this matter.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, told Semafor he is “extremely disturbed and alarmed” and said the administration has “not been very responsive” to inquiries about the deportations.
“We will be demanding accountability” if Democrats flip the Senate in the midterms, he said.
“Cruelty is so often the point for this administration, and there few better examples of this than the administration’s deportation flight strategy that sends migrants back home to face persecution and imminent danger or to third countries where they have no history or support and that may imprison them or send them back home to face persecution and imminent danger,” said a spokesperson for Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., another Foreign Relations Committee member.
The spokesperson called the deportations “another incidence of Trump’s lawlessness that Democrats should tackle next year.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., another committee member, called the arrangements “a stain on our country’s honor” and said Republicans have prevented legislation that would “compel the State Department to shed light” on the deals.
Democrats have raised questions about the Trump administration’s arrangements with other countries — many in Africa — to accept migrants. But with no power to compel answers from the administration, they’ve been given little information about the deals.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee who is retiring, told Semafor administration officials “haven’t gotten back to us” after a report from Senate Democrats raised concerns about the legality and cost of the deportations.
Yael Schacher of NGO Refugees International told Semafor that her organization — which jointly operates a tracking site for third-country deportations — has “been contacted by members of Congress interested in conducting oversight over the removals to third countries.” Schacher also described the situation in Equatorial Guinea as “especially egregious.”
