The Trump administration is planning to deport migrants without legal status to Libya, a country long plagued by armed conflict, according to a new report by NPR.
However, Libyan officials, for both the factions controlling separate areas of the divided country, denied they were in talks with the U.S.
Meantime, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that deporting noncitizens to Libya without due process would violate his existing court order. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled against any removals to Libya or Saudi Arabia after lawyers representing a group of migrants filed an emergency motion.
Judge Murphy ruled that sending any noncitizens to any country including but not limited to Libya and Saudi Arabia without prior written notice and a meaningful opportunity to raise fear-based claims “would clearly violate this Court’s Order.” He’s referring to his previous ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens to any country other than their place of origin without due process.
Earlier this week, Rwanda’s foreign minister confirmed that the East African country was in talks with Washington about the same issue. All these countries have notorious human rights records.
The deportations to Libya are expected to be carried out by the U.S. military. A second U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly about the plans told NPR’s Tom Bowman that the flight to Libya hadn’t started yet. The plans involve the use of a single aircraft that wouldn’t be full, the source said.