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More than a dozen West African men who were deported to Ghana by the United States have since been returned to their home countries by the Ghanaian government, despite legitimate fears of torture or persecution at home. Ghana is one of a growing list of countries that have signed “third country agreements” with the United States to accept U.S. deportees. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, notes that in many cases judges have ordered the Trump administration not to deport immigrants to countries where they may face persecution. “It’s a complete ruse to get around the order from the immigration judge,” he says. “This fits a pattern of the Trump administration trying to evade court orders.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

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NERMEEN SHAIKH: We continue now on the subject of immigration and turn to the case of a group of West African men who were granted protection from deportation to their home countries on account of legitimate fears of persecution or torture at home, so the Trump administration instead sent them to Ghana. Ghana is one of a growing list of countries that have signed third country agreements with the U.S. to accept deportees from other countries. This is the president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, speaking earlier this month.

PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA: We were approached by the U.S. to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the U.S. And we agreed with them that West African nationals, you know, were acceptable, because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country. So, if they decided to travel from U.S. to Accra, they don’t need a visa anyway. So, if you are bringing our colleague West Africans back, I mean, that’s OK. And so, I think that agreement has been activated, and a first batch of 14 nationals came.

AMY GOODMAN: But it appears the deportees did not stay in Ghana for long. Upon arrival, they were detained, and within days, it appears, Ghanaian officials began repatriating the men to their home countries — exactly where they feared going.

In the lawsuit filed by Asian Americans Advancing Justice and joined by the ACLU, attorneys assert the U.S. sent the men to Ghana with full knowledge they would then be sent to their home countries. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she was “alarmed and dismayed” at the men’s removals, and that they, quote, “appear to be part of a pattern and widespread effort to evade the government’s legal obligations by doing indirectly what it cannot do directly,” unquote. But she said her hands are tied.

For more, we’re joined by Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, also adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, on the team representing some of the people sent to Ghana. In recent weeks, Lee won a major case in which one of the most conservative, if not the most conservative, federal appeals court panel in the country ruled President Trump cannot use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed the deportations of people his administration accuses of membership in a Venezuelan gang.

Lee, welcome back to Democracy Now! Talk about this case of the men being sent to Ghana, with the U.S. fully knowing that Ghana will then send them exactly where they fear, where they fled from, their home countries.

LEE GELERNT: Yeah, thanks, Amy. And you’ve described it perfectly.

I think, and unfortunately, this fits a pattern of the Trump administration trying to evade court orders. So,........

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