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Ghana says immigrants deported by the U.S. have been sent home, contradicting lawyers

Story by Nicholas Riccardi, Chinedu Asadu and Edward Acquah
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Ghana's President John Mahama speaks to the media in the capital of Accra on Sept. 10. His government says 14 African immigrants deported to Ghana by the U.S. have been returned to their home countries. ((Uncredited / Associated Press))

The group of 14 African immigrants deported to Ghana by the U.S. have been returned to their home countries, Ghanaian authorities reiterated on Tuesday, pushing back on claims from lawyers for the deportees who say they are still held in the West African country.
Ghana’s Minister for Government Communications and Presidential Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu reiterated the claim in an interview with the Associated Press, stating that the Gambian individual had already flown home while the remaining 13, all Nigerians, were sent home on a bus.

Lawyers for four of the Nigerian immigrants contradicted the official’s claim, saying in court filings on Monday and in interviews with AP that the four deportees were still being held in a facility in Ghana.
The Ghanaian minister denied knowledge of such a facility. "Nobody is being held in any camp and nobody’s right has been abused,” Ofosu said in a phone interview.
U.S. judge won’t intervene

Meanwhile, a U.S. judge said that she was powerless to stop the return of four men in Ghana’s custody to countries where U.S. immigration judges determined they faced torture or persecution, declining to intervene in a victory for the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said that the administration appeared to be circumventing the U.N. Convention Against Torture by sending the West Africans to Ghana, but that her “hands are tied.”

Chutkan wrote that she was “alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out, especially in light of the government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution.”
The ruling Monday night in federal court in Washington clears the way for 14 West Africans to be sent to their home countries from Ghana, including the four covered by the ruling. They appear to be destined for Nigeria and Gambia, despite U.S. immigration judges finding they have reason to fear persecution or torture.
Chutkan said it was the latest example of the Trump administration evading prohibitions on deportations by sending people outside the country anyway and claiming that U.S. judges had no power to order them back.
The judge distinguished it from the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration wrongly sent to a prison in his native El Salvador. In the Africa case, unlike in Abrego Garcia, she wrote, the administration could legally send them to Ghana.

Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the lawsuit, said in a statement: “We are obviously disappointed by the ruling but there’s no reason why the administration should require a court to tell them to obey the laws prohibiting the transfer of individuals to countries where it’s likely they will be tortured and persecuted.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration, faced with decisions by immigration judges that people can't be sent back to their home countries, has increasingly been trying to send them to third countries with which the administration has created agreements to take deportees.
Ghana has joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S.
Riccardi, Asadu and Acquah write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Colorado and Asadu from Senegal. Associated Press writer Abdoulie John in Gambia contributed.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Ghana says immigrants deported by the U.S. have been sent home, contradicting lawyers