A U.S. judge said on Wednesday that any effort by the Trump administration to deport migrants to Libya would "clearly" violate a prior court order barring officials from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first weighing whether they might face persecution if sent there.
The order from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy came after Reuters was first to report on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration may deport migrants to Libya for the first time this week, according to three U.S. officials, despite Washington's previous condemnation of Libya's harsh treatment of detainees.
Two of the officials said the U.S. military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change.
Reuters could not determine how many migrants would be sent to Libya or the nationalities of the individuals that the administration is eyeing for deportation. The relatives of one Mexican national told Reuters he had been told to sign a document allowing for his deportation to the African nation.
After news of the potential flight to Libya broke, immigrant rights advocates made an emergency request that Murphy block the Trump administration from sending migrants to Libya or any country en route to there, including Saudi Arabia, without ensuring their due process rights were met.
Lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit said the individuals potentially subject to deportation to Libya included Laotian, Vietnamese, and Philippine migrants. They added that sending them to Libya without first providing them a chance to raise their safety concerns "blatantly defies" the judge's injunction.
When asked about the plans, Trump said he did not know whether that was happening. "I don't know. You'll have to ask Homeland Security," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The Pentagon referred queries to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A State Department spokesperson said: "We do not discuss the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments."
Libya's Government of National Unity said on Wednesday it rejected the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. It also said there was no coordination with the United States regarding the reception of migrants.
Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, also rejected in a statement the idea of the country taking migrants deported from the United States, saying it "violates the sovereignty of the homeland".
Trump, who made immigration a major issue during his election campaign, has launched aggressive enforcement action since taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
As of Monday, the Trump administration has deported 152,000 people, according to DHS.
The administration has tried to encourage migrants to leave voluntarily by threatening steep fines, trying to strip away legal status, and deporting migrants to notorious prisons in Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador.
MEXICO TO LIBYA
Family members of a Mexican national feared he could be deported from the United States to Libya, after he called them on Tuesday from immigration detention in Texas, saying he had been told to sign a document allowing for his deportation to the African nation.
Valentin Yah, 39, said several others of various nationalities at the immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, had been told to sign the same document, according to two of his family members.
His family members, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he was pleading with immigration officials to be sent to Mexico on Tuesday, only about 100 miles from where he was detained.
"He’s literally closer to his hometown in Mexico and begging them to send him back,” one of his family members said.
Yah, an indigenous Mexican from Yucatan, has a conviction for sexual abuse and served about 15 years in prison in the United States before being detained by immigration authorities, records show. He was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2009, records show.
LIFE-THREATENING
In its annual human rights report released last year, the U.S. State Department criticized Libya's "harsh and life-threatening prison conditions" and "arbitrary arrest or detention."
The Department in its travel advisory advises U.S. citizens against visiting the country due to "crime, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict."
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing in each area.
Libya's west is overseen by the GNU under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who was installed in Tripoli through a U.N.-backed process in 2021. Eastern Libya has a parallel administration and is controlled by commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army.
Major fighting ended with a truce in 2020, but the underlying political dispute remains and there are sporadic clashes between rival factions.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week said the United States was not satisfied only with sending migrants to El Salvador, and hinted that Washington was looking to expand the number of countries that it may deport people to.
"We are working with other countries to say: We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings, will you do this as a favor to us," Rubio said at a cabinet meeting at the White House last Wednesday.
"And the further away from America, the better."