WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after reports that journalists and a lawyer were detained by Cameroonian authorities while investigating U.S. third-country deportations:
“The arrests of journalists investigating the third country deportations in Cameroon, along with a lawyer representing many of those detained, are deeply alarming and underscore the concerns I laid out alongside fellow Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in our recent report. The Trump Administration has dramatically expanded the use of third country deportations, turning what was once a narrow and rarely used practice into an enormously costly and opaque standing system of global removals. American taxpayers are being forced to foot the bill as the Trump Administration spends upwards of a million dollars per deportee to send individuals to countries they are not from.
“Congress and the American people deserve answers about these costly and completely opaque deals. The detained journalists and legal representatives must be released immediately, and the Administration must ensure accountability and full transparency for these deportations.”
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