Jamaica receives first flight of third-country deportees from US
22 migrants land in Kingston under June deal capping transfers at 25 per fortnight, Supreme Court to rule on policy legality in December
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Third-country deportees arrive in Jamaica after flight from US
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Twenty-two third-country nationals deported from the United States landed at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport on Tuesday, the first transfer under a memorandum of understanding Jamaica signed with Washington in June. The deportees are people who have claimed their home countries are too dangerous to return to — the category the Trump administration removes to third states willing to accept them.
Jamaica's ministries of national security and foreign affairs set out the terms in a joint statement. The arrangement is a transit scheme, run with the support of the International Organization for Migration, to move people onward to their countries of origin or other receiving states. It caps arrivals at 25 per fortnight, will not be funded by the Jamaican government, and bars any third-country national with criminal antecedents from transiting.
The policy's legality remains undecided. In September the Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue third-country removals while the question is litigated, over the dissent of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said they would have denied the request for a stay. The decision gave the administration the immediate relief it sought as it presses ahead with the removals. Lower courts have not categorically prohibited the deportations but have required procedures giving people the chance to raise claims of persecution or torture in the destination country. The Supreme Court hears the full case in December.
The removal network is being assembled ahead of that verdict. Liberia has agreed to accept 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States within a year, and a plane carrying deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport near Monrovia in August. Reported plans include sending Iranians to a violence-plagued Central African state under a new deal.
Jamaica's cap stands at 25 arrivals per fortnight. The Supreme Court takes up the policy's legality in December.