By Abayomi Azikiwe
United States President Donald Trump has been persistent in deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and National Guard troops to various regions of the country to arrest, detain and deport migrants.
Most of these deportations are deliberately targeting people from the Caribbean-Latin America, Asia and Africa for harassment and removals.
All of these efforts are aimed at terrorizing people of color communities and reducing their numbers in the U.S. Trump’s mantra of “making America great again” is clearly based on a determination to enhance the demographic status of European Americans while furthering the level of institutional racism and national oppression.
To rapidly facilitate the “cleansing” of the U.S., the MAGA Republicans who control the White House, House of Representatives and the Senate are upholding the illegal efforts of the Trump administration. By denying the right to due process under constitutional law, the administration has set the stage for the violation of the basic civil and human rights of all people living in the U.S. irrespective of their immigration status.
Since the inauguration of Trump, almost daily there are new initiatives to create greater instability and insecurity among the population. In Los Angeles, where the National Guard under federal control was first deployed, Marines were also sent into the city for several weeks.
Militarization of the urban areas serves as a backdrop to the worsening crisis. Tariffs and mass layoffs of government employees are weakening the socioeconomic status of working and oppressed peoples in the U.S.
Ghanaian Human Rights Organization Files Lawsuit to Halt Secret Migrant Deportation Deal with the U.S.
During the month of September, the Republic of Ghana government of President John Mahama was exposed for collaborating with the Trump administration in its efforts to subvert U.S. and international law by denying due process and deporting migrants to third countries. With its stated objectives of removing at least 11 million people from the U.S., select member-states of the African Union (AU) are being targeted for these illegal deportations.
The coercive mechanisms being utilized by the White House are part and parcel of its tariffs policy which penalizes states for trading with the U.S. Tariffs which exceed 100% have been leveled at the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the second largest economy in the world. In regard to AU member-states which represent an estimated 1.4 billion Africans, some governments have been subjected to tariffs as high as 50%.
Moreover, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provided some duty-free imports to the U.S. from production facilities on the continent has been defunded by the current MAGA-dominated Congress. Textile factories in Lesotho which exported their products to the U.S. have laid off tens of thousands of workers.
With specific reference to Ghana in West Africa, President Mahama has stated that the raising of visa fees for nationals entering the U.S. was a factor in negotiating the secret deal with the Trump administration. Yet, the character of the migrant deportations, their treatment by federal agents of the U.S. and the failure to be transparent with the people of Ghana, Africa and the world has not been addressed by Mahama and his administration.
The African migrants were transported from the detention facilities in the U.S. without being told their destinations. Some were placed in straight jackets while the detainees were only fed bread and water. After being dropped at a military camp in Ghana, there was disinformation over the whereabouts of the migrants.
Their attorneys in the U.S. filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for violating the due process rights of those deported to Ghana. The courts noted the violation of U.S. laws governing deportation. The judge in the case however said he did not have the authority to return those illegally removed.
In a most recent development in Ghana, the Democracy Hub organization has filed a case against the government’s secret deal with the Trump administration noting that the arrangement violates the national constitution as well as international law. The Ghana Supreme Court has ordered the Attorney General to respond to the claim filed by Democracy Hub within two weeks from October 27.
One source on the Democracy Hub case filed in Ghana’s highest court says:
“The group’s lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, said that with the arrival of 14 new deportees on Monday, the total number of migrants sent from the US to Ghana has reached 42. Since July, the US has deported several migrants convicted of serious crimes—including murder and child abuse—to African countries such as South Sudan, Rwanda, and Ghana. Democracy Hub criticized the arrangement as lacking transparency, saying deportees are being sent to third countries where they have no ties and are deprived of their right to due process. US President Donald Trump is known for his anti-immigration policies, which have focused on tightening border controls, limiting legal immigration, and increasing deportations. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order repealing the ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives introduced under his predecessor, Joe Biden. He later announced the termination of the ‘CBP One’ program, which had allowed migrants to apply for legal entry into the US.”
These events illustrate clearly the political and economic vulnerability of African states in their dealing with the imperialist countries. The Ghana government has been left with the indefensible task of legally justifying its arrangement with the Trump administration to which it cannot provide sound legal arguments before the Supreme Court of the country.
Other African States Targeted
There are other African states which are known to have agreed to accept third-country migrants deported from the U.S. These states include South Sudan, Rwanda, Eswatini, and most recently the Republic of Liberia in West Africa. News reports indicate that the government in Liberia has agreed to accept Sheetmetal Workers Union apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia who earlier was deported to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
It would take a national campaign involving his trade union leadership, assistance from a U.S. Senator and thousands of community activists to have him released and sent back to his family. He has been detained periodically and threatened with spurious criminal charges.
A report published by Africa News emphasized statements by a U.S. court judge on October 27:
“A United States federal judge on Monday requested assurances that officials would not deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia while an injunction barring his removal from the US is in place. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed a notice of its plan to send the Salvadoran national to Liberia, the latest in a series of possible African destinations. Abrego Garcia entered the US illegally as a teenager in 2011 after fleeing gang violence in his home country and is married to an American with whom he has children. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported to El Salvador, saying he faced a ‘well-founded fear’ of violence from a gang that targeted his family.”
In the Southern African kingdom of Eswatini, a Cuban deported from the U.S. has engaged in a hunger strike to protest his presence in a maximum-security prison without access to legal counsel. Although there are corporate media reports that the migrant is a dangerous criminal, the U.S. or Eswatini has no right to hold him incommunicado for weeks with no right to due process.
A publication which covers Latin America notes of the current situation in Eswatini that:
“A Cuban man deported to the African nation of Eswatini earlier this year has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention at a maximum-security prison. Roberto Mosquera del Peral was among five people sent to the African country earlier this month. He is being kept at the prison along with his fellow deportees and ten others removed also in October. His lawyer, Alma David, told Reuters that his client is ‘arbitrarily detained and now his life is on the line.’ She added that the strike began a week ago, on October 15.”
These African states should be condemned by the AU Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for their violation of the continental charter and international law. Trump’s policies domestically and internationally have had disastrous consequences on African and other peoples of the Global South over the last nine months.
People in the U.S. demonstrating in their millions against the denial of fundamental civil and human rights must include the struggle of migrants for just treatment by the courts and the administration in Washington. The plight of the Palestinians, the people of Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine and Africa are all being used in an attempt by the current U.S. administration to reassert itself as the dominant imperialist state in the world.
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