Overview

• A July 9 memo from Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes deportations of migrants with final removal orders to third countries with at least 24 hours’ notice or, in exigent circumstances, as little as six hours.
• States providing credible diplomatic assurances may receive deportees without prior notice, removing a key safeguard against exposure to persecution.
• ICE has already flown eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam to South Sudan under the new rules.
• Those who express fear of third-country transfer must undergo expedited screenings under federal law and the Convention Against Torture, generally within a 24-hour window.
• Advocacy groups like the National Immigration Litigation Alliance argue that the compressed procedures violate due process and have launched litigation to halt the policy.