Experts say the administration may be trying to shape the behavior of immigrants through fear.
The Trump administration is trying to deport a group of eight migrants to South Sudan, a country on the brink of civil war.
The men, who are from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico, are currently believed to be held at an American military base in the East African nation of Djibouti, after a federal judge ordered the administration not to turn them over to the government of South Sudan.
U.S. immigration law does, under some circumstances, allow people to be sent to countries that are not their own. But this has been rare under past administrations.
The Trump administration is attempting to do something more expansive: potentially sending large groups of people to dangerous places like South Sudan, Libya or a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, with little or no due process, even if their countries of origin are willing to take them back.
“The trifecta of being sent to a third country, plus the intended scale, plus the punishment-is-the-point approach — those three things in combination, that feels very new,” said Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, a professor at Boston University School of Law.
The administration’s ultimate goal, experts say, may be to shape the behavior of other immigrants through fear.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
