A US judge said that she was powerless to stop the return of four men in Ghana’s custody to countries where US immigration judges determined they faced torture or persecution, declining to intervene in a victory for the Trump administration. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said that the administration appeared to be circumventing the UN Convention Against Torture by sending the West Africans to Ghana, but that her “hands are tied.”
Chutkan wrote that she was “alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out, especially in light of the government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution.” The ruling Monday night in federal court in Washington clears the way for 14 West Africans to be sent to their home countries from Ghana, including the four covered by the ruling.
They appear to be destined for Nigeria and Gambia, despite US immigration judges finding they have reason to fear persecution or torture. Chutkan said it was the latest example of the Trump administration evading prohibitions on deportations by sending people outside the country anyway and claiming that US judges had no power to order them back.
The judge distinguished it from the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration wrongly sent to a prison in his native El Salvador. In the Africa case, unlike in Abrego Garcia, she wrote, the administration could legally send them to Ghana. Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the lawsuit, said in a statement: “We are obviously disappointed by the ruling, but there's no reason why the administration should require a court to tell them to obey the laws prohibiting the transfer of individuals to countries where it’s likely they will be tortured and persecuted.”