A lawyer for the US Department of Homeland Security, James Percival, says he is unaware of any cases in which people deported from the United States to Ghana were subsequently sent to other countries against their will, following allegations in a 60 Minutes report.
The report by the US-based media outlet found that 17 of the 19 deportees interviewed claimed Ghana had transferred them against their will to countries they had been legally protected from being returned to by US immigration judges.
“I’m not aware of any such cases,” Percival said in response to the allegations.
He suggested that some deportees might have consented to returning to their home countries, while others could have been sent back after the governments receiving them completed their own legal procedures.
“Either they would choose to go home, and they might not always be truthful about the fact that they consented, so that’s one possibility,” he said.
“The other possibility is that the foreign government applied their own procedures and, consistent with international law, determined that it was acceptable to return them home,” Percival added.
His comments come amid growing scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding the transfer of deportees from the United States to Ghana and the subsequent allegations that some were sent to countries where US immigration judges had ruled they should not be returned.
Percival, however, shifted the discussion to what he described as the failure of previous US administrations to remove individuals he considers threats to public safety.
“I’d really like to talk about the public safety threats associated with this population of aliens and the fact that every administration before President Trump absolutely abdicated their responsibility to the American people by letting criminals back on the street and doing no diplomatic efforts to get these people out of our country,” he said.
One of the cases featured in the 60 Minutes report involved Moussa Diawara, a Texas-based man from Mali who was reportedly deported to his home country after being transferred through Ghana.
According to the report, Diawara had lived in the United States for 25 years and had no criminal record. He was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 11 while finishing his night shift as an Uber driver.
At the time of his arrest, Diawara was heading to the home he owns in the Houston suburbs with his wife and children, who are US citizens.
His case has added a personal dimension to the wider controversy over the treatment of people removed from the United States and the circumstances under which deportees are transferred between countries.
While Percival said he was unaware of cases involving deportees being sent onward from Ghana against their will, the allegations documented by 60 Minutes raise questions about the circumstances of those transfers, the consent of the individuals involved and the procedures followed before their return to their countries of origin.
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