The U.S. Supreme Court has handed President Donald Trump yet another win. Recently, the court allowed Trump to continue mass deporting immigrants to dangerous third-world countries.
Earlier this year, much outrage was recorded when it was revealed that Trump had sent immigrants to one of the most dangerous prisons in El Salvador. Though Trump’s team had repeatedly said that those sent to this prison were dangerous gang members, recent reporting has confirmed that many of them had no criminal record. Many of them had even entered the U.S. legally.
Now, Trump has set his sights on sending immigrants to South Sudan, a country that is currently going through such a terrible period of violence that 165,000 South Sudanese citizens have fled their homes in just the last three months. Regardless of this danger, eight men — only one of whom is from South Sudan—are now being held in the country.
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How the Violation of Human Rights Has Become Normal
South Sudan is known for human rights violations. However, the country quickly became a frontrunner in the Trump administration for where to deport immigrants they no longer wanted in the United States. Lawyers for these eight men tried to stop their deportation, yet to no avail.
These lawyers rightly pointed out that these men are worried about facing “torture or death there.” The Trump administration, in response, said that South Sudan promised not to torture the men.
Legal experts — and members of the Supreme Court — have spoken of how these men are facing a violation of their human rights. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “The United States may not deport noncitizens to a country where they are likely to be tortured or killed. International and domestic law guarantee that basic human rights.”
However, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Trump could continue his deportations. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has made the violation of human rights almost normal. They don’t seem to be worried at all that these human beings could face torture or death in these highly dangerous third-world countries.
To make matters worse, the government seems to want to keep these immigrants imprisoned in these dangerous conditions for the rest of their lives. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has publicly said as such, even though many of these immigrants haven’t been charged with a crime that would ever warrant such extreme sentences.
Even if they had been, they still deserve the right to a fair trial — something they haven’t been given at all. The U.S. can no longer even claim that they are not responsible for these immigrants they deport to prisons in other countries, as El Salvador has recently admitted to United Nations investigators that the U.S. remains in control of the deported men. The U.S. has long said the opposite, and that this lack of control is why they cannot bring these men home.
If anything happens to these men in El Salvador or South Sudan, it truly is on the United States’ watch.
Inhumane Treatments in the United States
How immigrants are being treated within U.S. detention facilities isn’t much better. Various detainees in Florida’s newly built Alligator Alcatraz have revealed the inhumane conditions they’re living in, including maggots in their food, only one meal a day, and no water to bathe.
Florida officials have denied these accusations.
Other detainees have said that they’ve had their Bibles confiscated, as they were told that they don’t have the right to religion within the detention center. These are very clear violations of civil and human rights, happening to migrants on United States soil.
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