Immigration Article of the Day: The Odyssey of Third Country Removal by Matthew Boaz
The Odyssey of Third Country Removal by Matthew Boaz\
Abstract
This essay discusses the case of one individual, Kilmar Ábrego García, and how his story exemplifies the odyssey into which many noncitizens have been cast during the first year of the second Trump administration. Specifically, this essay focuses on the amplified use of third country removals as part of a mass deportation campaign. This essay sounds the alarm that these third country removals are likely to become more expansive because of the rapidity of the removal process, the vulnerability of affected populations, and the unwillingness of courts to intervene after the fact.
Third country removals, as they currently function, pose a real threat to noncitizens and citizens alike. Despite former Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) Secretary Kristi Noem’s protestations that no U.S. citizens have been detained or arrested, instances of such conduct number into the hundreds during the first year of the second Trump administration.
Past administrations have also, by error, arrested, detained, and deported U.S. citizens. Because the present process provides a singular mechanism to prevent removal—asserting fear of removal to a specific place—with no review, an asylum officer or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) officer is frequently the only person who stands between an individual and removal.24 Under the current administration, pressure on officers, immigration judges, and Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) judges has eroded any remaining confidence that these officials employed by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) or DHS could act in a neutral fashion as arbiters and independent decision makers.
Despite these obstacles, local communities have been steadily intervening to help prevent detentions of their noncitizen neighbors, and legal actors have been successfully employing various forms of litigation to push back on these efforts. There may yet be a resistance that can adequately respond to these draconian measures.
