Warren, Van Hollen, Raskin, Thompson, Carter, Ramirez Launch New Probe into Trump Administration’s Potential Violation of U.S. and International Law

Warren, Van Hollen, Raskin, Thompson, Carter, Ramirez Launch New Probe into Trump Administration's Potential Violation of U.S. and International Law

Lawmakers warn Trump admin is coercing countries into accepting noncitizens from other parts of the world, without proper protections to prevent persecution and torture

"We are concerned that the Trump administration is offshoring the immigration detention system in an apparent attempt to evade the due process requirements of the U.S. constitution."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen, along with Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Troy Carter (D-La.), and Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) led 60 members of Congress in announcing a new investigation into the Trump administration's practice of detaining and sending immigrants to countries where they have no citizenship or connections of any kind. The letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), State Department, and Department of Defense (DoD), seeks details about the Trump administration's third-country deportation practices, which may violate U.S. and international law.

Since January, the administration has sent thousands of people, including children, long-time U.S. residents, and individuals with no criminal records, to countries they are not from and that were not designated for their removal, which U.S. immigration law only allows in rare circumstances. People are being sent to these countries without proper due process.

"These operations appear to be, at least in part, an attempt to evade the statutory, regulatory, and constitutional due process requirements of the U.S. immigration adjudication process," wrote the lawmakers.

So far, countries like El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ghana, South Sudan, Eswatini, Uzbekistan, and Mexico have accepted noncitizens deported or expelled from the United States. Some countries have accepted out of fear of economic or other repercussions. For example, Costa Rica's President said, "[i]f they impose a tax in our free [trade] zones, it'll screw us."

The Trump administration has reportedly pursued agreements with at least a dozen additional countries - including Libya, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, Angola, Moldova, Uganda, Honduras, Kosovo, and even Ukraine, despite its ongoing war.

Fast-tracked expulsions and deportations to third countries allow DHS to deport planeloads of people practically overnight, to whatever country has agreed to receive or detain noncitizens en masse. Some have been deported with less than 24 hours' notice, without meaningful access to attorneys, and with no opportunity to assert their due process rights or have their cases heard.

"These rapid removals not only ignore an individual's country of origin, but also whether that person might face persecution, torture, or death in the intended destination," said the members.

Under U.S. and international law on non-refoulment, it is illegal to send individuals to third countries where they would face persecution or torture. Yet DHS' new policy allows third-country removals as long as the third country has generally assured that it will not persecute or torture people deported from the United States. And now, reports of torture in El Salvador's CECOT prison have begun to emerge.

Many deportees are not given a realistic chance to express a fear of persecution. In fact, some have been deported without knowing where they were being sent, thinking they were being sent to another U.S. city until landing in an unknown country.

"DHS has effectively communicated that 'it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard,'" the lawmakers said.

The State Department is responsible for establishing the diplomatic agreements that allow these deportations, but a full list of countries with which the department currently has these agreements has not been made public. Additionally, DoD is responsible for conducting the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas. This includes Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which cost DoD an estimated $40 million in just the first month.

The lawmakers asked the three agencies to respond, by October 8, 2025, with details about the State Department's third-country agreements and criteria for selecting these countries; DHS's notice procedures for deporting an individual; the costs associated with DoD's participation in third-country removals; the administration's post-removal monitoring mechanisms to ensure deported individuals are not persecuted, tortured, detained indefinitely, or denied basic rights; and a breakdown of how many people subject to third-country deportations were minors, lawful permanent residents, had a visa, were recipients of humanitarian parole, recipients of protection from removal under the Convention Against Torture, or were U.S. citizens.

Senators Cory Booker, Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joined in signing the letter.

Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Lizzie Fletcher (Texas), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Jesus Garcia (D-Ill.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), Pablo Hernandez (D-Puerto Rico), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Henry Johnson (D-Ga.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Dave Min (D-Calif.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Norma Torres (D-Calif.), Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Fla.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) joined in signing the letter.

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