US judge questions deportation of West African migrants to Ghana

14/9/2025 11:51

A U.S. judge on Saturday said it appeared that President Donald Trump's administration intentionally circumvented immigration laws this week when it deported Nigerian and Gambian migrants to Ghana.



Judge Tanya Chutkan, based in Washington, D.C., scheduled an emergency hearing after lawyers representing some of the migrants said their clients expected they could be moved to their home countries, where they fear torture or persecution. Chutkan later ordered the Trump administration to file a report by 9 p.m. local time explaining how it was trying to stop Ghana from sending the migrants to Nigeria or Gambia.



The deportations are part of Trump's strategy to send migrants to "third countries" to speed their removal and pressure migrants in the U.S. illegally to leave. Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama said this week that his nation struck an agreement with the U.S. to accept West African deportees and had already received 14 people.



Chutkan said it appeared the Trump administration crafted the deal as a way "to make an end run" around U.S. legal requirements that it refrain from sending migrants to danger in their home countries.