The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on July 15 that it deported five “barbaric” criminals from various nations to Eswatini in Southern Africa under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program.DHS said in a statement posted to X that it had removed five male foreign nationals originally from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen to the southern African nation. The crimes the men had allegedly committed included child rape and murder.“These criminal illegal aliens are so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” the DHS said in a statement
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that illegal immigrants could be deported to countries to which they have no prior connection.According to the department, the Cuban man is a confirmed Latin King Street gang member with convictions for first-degree murder, aggravated battery, aggravated battery of a police officer, and grand theft auto.The Jamaican national had convictions for murder, robbery, and possession of a weapon, according to the department.
Convictions for the Laotian man included second-degree murder, forced-entry burglary, and operating a vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance, the DHS stated.The Vietnamese national was convicted of child rape, the DHS said. The Yemeni man had several convictions, including for second-degree homicide and assault and battery, according to the department.
In the social media post, DHS said, “Under the leadership of [DHS Secretary Kristi Noem] and [President Donald] Trump, we are removing these convicted criminals from our soil so they can never hurt another American victim.”
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a small, landlocked country bordered by South Africa and Mozambique.
Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, has ruled Eswatini by decree since 1986. The Epoch Times reached out to Eswatini authorities for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Supreme Court Ruling
The deportations follow similar third-country removals to South Sudan earlier this month, after the Supreme Court on July 3 rejected a bid to prevent the DHS from deporting them.
The eight individuals—whose lawyers said were from Burma (also known as Myanmar), Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Sudan, and Vietnam—were all charged with crimes and were being held in a U.S. military facility in Djibouti while the litigation was ongoing.
The DHS said in a July 5 post on X that the ruling was a “win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people.”“After weeks of delays by activist judges that put our law enforcement in danger, ICE deported these 8 barbaric criminal illegal aliens who are so heinous even their own countries will not accept them,” the DHS stated.In its May 27 application to the Supreme Court, the DHS said that when illegal immigrants commit crimes, they are typically deported to their home country. However, when these crimes are so “heinous” that their own countries refuse to take them back, the “criminal aliens are often allowed to stay in the United States for years on end, victimizing law-abiding Americans in the meantime.”
Temporary Protection Status
El Salvador has also accepted illegal immigrants from the United States who have no ties to the country.White House border czar Tom Homan said on July 11 that the United States was looking to negotiate with other third countries to accept deportees.
“If there is a significant public threat or national security threat—there’s one thing for sure—they’re not walking the streets of this country,” Homan said. “We’ll find a third, safe nation to send them to, and we’re doing it.”In recent months, Trump ended deportation protections for immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, and Venezuela.Some of these temporary protected statuses (TPSs) were decades old. The TPS for Nicaragua was initiated after a natural disaster in 1999, and the one for Honduras was enacted nearly 27 years ago in the wake of Hurricane Mitch.Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.
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