DHS Courts Contempt In Its Zeal To Deport As Many Harmless Grannies As Possible

Libya? They want to send people to LIBYA?

No matter how depraved you think the Trump administration is, they will still find a way to surprise you with their cruelty. Not content with renditioning migrants to a hellhole in El Salvador, these ghouls are now looking to throw Asian immigrants into an even worse prison in Libya, a country notorious for human rights abuses.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its intention to continue kidnapping immigrants and dumping them in third countries.

“I intend to continue to try and identify other countries willing to accept and jail as many gang members as we can send them,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted to the New York Times.

Independent journalist Marisa Kabas was first to report that the administration was sending Iraqis to Rwanda. And on Tuesday, multiple media outlets confirmed that military planes would begin transporting immigrants to Libya, possibly via Saudi Arabia, for detention in that country’s jails. Specifically, there were reports that an Air Force C-17 military plane would be taking off from the Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio on Wednesday headed for Misrata International Airport in Libya.

At the same time, immigration counsel for detainees at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, just 60 miles from San Antonio, were getting reports that Asian immigrants were being asked to sign papers agreeing to be deported to Libya:

What we’re hearing from relatives is that, yesterday, ICE officers at the South Texas Detention Facility gathered 1 Vietnamese detainee, along with 5 others (including 1 from Laos) into a room and told them that they needed to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya. When they all refused, they were each put in a separate room and cuffed in (basically, solitary) in order to get them to sign it.

This particular Vietnamese detainee was told that he’d be deported to Libya anyway next week, and another Vietnamese detainee was told that he’d be deported to Libya this Saturday.

Additionally, some South and Central American nationals were given summary notices informing them that they were being deported to Mexico.

The attorneys said that many of these detainees had “really old final orders of removal who were recently detained by ICE.” That tracks with a February 18 DHS memo instructing agents to “consider for expedited removal (ER) all aliens previously released by US Customs and Border Protection who have not affirmatively filed an application for asylum.” With respect to immigrants who have a judicial order granting withholding of removal because they cannot safely be returned to their native countries, the memo instructs case officers to “review the case to determine the viability of removal to a third country, and accordingly whether the alien should be re-detained.”

In short, the order prioritizes moving bodies out of the country, not, as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem continues to brag, getting rid of dangerous criminals. If these people were dangerous, they’d already be in custody instead of being released and told to check in every year. Only now, when they do check in, they’re getting detained and fast-tracked to some third-country hellhole.

But these alleged summary renditions blatantly violate a nationwide injunction issued on April 18 by Judge Brian Murphy of the US District Court of Massachusetts in a case called D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security. Judge Murphy ruled that it violates due process to deport someone to a third country without notice or time to make an argument that he’ll face abuse in that country under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).

Here’s the operative language of that injunction:

[P]rior to removing any alien to a third country, i.e., any country not explicitly provided for on the alien’s order of removal, Defendants must:

(1) provide written notice to the alien—and the alien’s immigration counsel, if any—of the third country to which the alien may be removed, in a language the alien can understand; (2) provide meaningful opportunity for the alien to raise a fear of return for eligibility for CAT protections; (3) move to reopen the proceedings if the alien demonstrates “reasonable fear”; and (4) if the alien is not found to have demonstrated “reasonable fear,” provide meaningful opportunity, and a minimum of 15 days, for that alien to seek to move to reopen immigration proceedings to challenge the potential third-country removal.

The government already got caught violating that order by flying detainees through Guantanamo Bay en route to El Salvador without bothering to give them the 15 days notice. The Justice Department’s explanation was that it was the Defense Department, not Homeland Security, that flew the detainees out, and so it was totally fine. But it was not fine with Judge Murphy, who ordered extensive discovery on who was on those flights and how it was allowed to happen. (Watch this space for another knock-down-drag-out fight as in the J.G.G. and Abrego Garcia cases when the government invokes the state secrets privilege to evade a contempt of court finding.)

Judge Murphy also expanded his injunction to specify that, “after taking custody of an alien, Defendants may not cede custody or control in any manner that prevents an alien from receiving the due-process guarantees outlined in the April 18, 2025 preliminary injunction.” Which is exactly what the immigration lawyers in Texas told ICE when they discovered that the agency was still using a defective notice of removal in preparation to force these people onto a DoD rendition flight to a continent they’ve likely never set foot on. And yesterday morning those lawyers filed a motion for an emergency TRO asking Judge Murphy to enjoin the renditions to Libya.

The judge was clearly furious at the flagrant disregard of his order.

“The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that this motion should not be required as the relief sought is already provided by the Preliminary Injunction entered in this case,” he fumed. “Accordingly, the Court construes Plaintiffs’ motion as one for clarification.”

“If there is any doubt—the Court sees none—the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as Plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information, would clearly violate this Court’s Order,” he clarified, presumably through gritted teeth. He also ordered briefing on the question of whether the DoD should be added as a party, since it keeps inserting itself into the matter.

Meanwhile, both Libyan governments — there are two, read the Wiki! — deny that they have any deal in place to imprison US deportees. But even if that’s true, it’s clear that the government intends to play whack-a-mole with the courts in an effort to shove as many harmless people out of the country as possible. How that will make America great is unclear.