Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens and do not speak the language with as little as six hours’ notice.
Coming on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling last month that paved the way for the practice, the agency laid out its plans in a memo Wednesday to employees obtained by the Washington Post. Destinations may include places where officials do not have “diplomatic assurances” that immigrants will not face torture or persecution.
The memo, written by the acting director of ICE Todd Lyons, said the police would go into effect “immediately.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the plan on Fox News Sunday, saying the new measures are “incredibly important to make sure we get these worst of the worst out of our country.”
“Many times, if other countries aren’t receiving their own citizens, other countries have agreed that they would take them in … and take care of them until their home country would receive them,” Noem said. “That’s what this memo was confirming, and that’s all been negotiated with that country through the State Department.”
Under the order, immigrants can be deported to countries other than their own with 24 hours’ notice. In “exigent” cases, that timeline can be reduced to six hours.
Immigrants with deportation orders that have not yet been carried out because of the risk of persecution in their home country—and those from Cuba and China, who do not have clear pathways for return from the U.S. because of poor diplomatic ties—could be targeted under the new plans.
Those who fear persecution in the proposed third country will be screened before departure, according to the Post.
ICE and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
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