Why have Costa Rica and Panama agreed to take Asians deported by Trump?

Since taking office last month, the administration has deported thousands of undocumented immigrants, breaking critics’ claims that this is in violation of immigration law.

According to information from the US Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration has deported 37, 660 people from his first month in office, frequently to their home country of origin.

Deportation flights have been approved by a number of Central American nations. These countries permit the Trump administration to send citizens from other, largely Asian, nations like India, Pakistan, and Iran, despite the majority of US citizens coming from these countries. According to the two nations, about 300 deportees arrived in Panama last week, and more than 100 in Costa Rica. No official information about the number of flights and the precise number of immigrants has been made by the US.

But why does Trump deport people who aren’t from their countries of origin instead? And why do these nations accept detainees?

Which third nations permit deportation flights from the US?

Panama became the first nation to accept 119 deported people from other nations last week.

On February 13, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino claimed that the migrants were from nations like China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Around 360 deportees are expected to arrive in Panama, according to Mullino, and it was the first of an anticipated three flights.

More deportees have arrived in Panama since the first flight touched down the previous week, according to Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego, who announced on February 18 that 299 foreign deportees were being detained in a hotel. Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China were the 10 nations that brought these immigrants.

On February 20, at least 135 people, including children, from Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, and Russia arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital.

On February 20, the US transported 177 Venezuelan migrants to Honduras from its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Venezuelan authorities then took them on the flag carrier Conviasa to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

Why does Trump deport people to other nations rather than their country of origin?

Experts gave a number of justifications.

Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the Migration Policy Institute, stated on Al Jazeera that it is more expedient, restricts access to US rights for migrants, and is intended to warn other migrants against coming.

It is “reasonable to assume that DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is doing this because their detention centers are full,” according to Tanya Golash-Boza, executive director of the University of California Washington Center.

According to internal DHS data, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities have a 38,521-bed capacity but are holding close to 42, 000 migrants, according to CBS News. Early this month, ICE released some immigrants in light of a recent rise in migrant arrests, according to CBS.

Once the migrants leave the US, Golash-Boza claimed, “they lose any semblance of rights they might have had because of their presence in the US.”

Mittelstadt argued that US law does not protect deportees who are sent to third nations. She added that it might not be possible to uphold international standards of protection, “including non-refoulement,” in third countries. A country’s principle of non-refoulement, which forbids sending someone back to the country they fled, is forbidden by international law.

These Central American nations serve another purpose for the Trump administration when it comes to deportees from nations with which the US does not have strong formal diplomatic ties.

Trump is using Honduras, and he may use others, because the US does not have good relations with Venezuela, according to human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.

India, Pakistan, and China have previously been cited by ICE as being “uncooperative,” but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “fully prepared” to welcome undocumented immigrants during a White House visit in February.

According to Smith, there are 195 migrants detained at Guantanamo, of which 177 are in Venezuela and one is in the US, with the rest apiece.

The detainees at Guantanamo “have all the legal rights of US citizens there, including the full constitutional right to a proper court,” according to Smith to Al Jazeera.

He recently claimed that the Trump administration is escorting people out of fear.

According to him, “It is the most notorious torture prison in the world,” which means less people will object to leaving and returning, ultimately to their home countries. Before there is time to transfer people from Guantanamo to proper courts, the Trump administration claims.

Trump flew immigrants to Guatemala during his first term, which was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2019 and 2020. Numerous human rights organizations oppose enlisting migrants in nations where they lack connections.

Trump was sued for this plan by pro-immigrant rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit for civil rights in the US. Trump’s first term came to an end before the investigation was finished, and the investigation was postponed as a result of the Biden administration’s policy changes.

Why did deportees receive permission from third countries?

According to analysts, countries in Central America have agreed to accept foreign deportations under Trump’s political and economic pressure.

Rodrigo Chaves, the president of Costa Rica, made a reference to the power imbalance that forces the US to impose on smaller neighbors when he claimed his nation is aiding its “economically powerful brother from the north” in a statement to reporters on Wednesday.

Trump has also threatened Panamanians because he has pledged to buy the Panama Canal, one of the busiest water channels in the world, that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to the Central American nations earlier this month, the agreements with Costa Rica and Panama were revealed. According to some observers, the two nations reportedly agreed after receiving tariff threats. Trump has already imposed tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, and he has used them as leverage against other countries.

After Bogota refused to accept two US military aircraft carrying Colombian deportees last month, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all of its products. Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, initially retaliated by threatening retaliatory tariffs, but he eventually backed down and consented to deportation flights. The tariffs were avoided for Colombia.

Where will deportees leave their home countries?

Deportees will remain in third countries until arrangements are made for their repatriation.

The Decapolis Hotel in Panama City has rooms that the police have guarded, and they are detained there. Some migrants were seen holding up signs that read “help us” and “we are not safe in our country” in video taken from outside the transparent windows. Hand gestures were used by some to signal that they were being denied their freedoms. Zheng Lijuan, a Chinese woman, escaped the hotel and was being sought by the police on February 19 after information was made public about her disappearance.

More than 40% of these migrants, according to Panamanian authorities, do not want to go back to their country of origin, citing security concerns among other factors.

According to authorities, at least 13 deported detainees have agreed to return to their country of origin, according to Panama’s Security Minister Abrego, of which 171 of the 299 have already done so.

A camp in the remote Darien province, which has a border with Colombia, is where the migrants who refuse to travel back to their countries of origin are being held. The Panamanian Security Ministry announced in a statement on February 19 that 97 of these immigrants had been moved to the camp of Darien.

In a rural holding facility close to the Panamanian border, the migrants will be held for up to six weeks. According to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and police, they will then be flown back to their country of origin. The US will provide funding for the operation.

According to Mittelstadt from the Migration Policy Institute, “the nations that are receiving these returnees temporarily face significant challenges in holding and returning them.”

Source: Aljazeera