US Deports First Set of Immigrants to Eswatini

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said on Tuesday it has deported immigrants from different countries to Eswatini, following the U.S. Supreme Court lifting limits on deporting migrants to third countries.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump’s administration the right to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own with as little as six hours’ notice without offering them a chance to show the harm they could face.

“A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed. This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said late on Tuesday.

In a thread on social media platform X, McLaughlin named five deportees from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen and said they were convicted of crimes ranging from child rape to murder.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo had stated that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them “without the need for further procedures.”