A Jamaican citizen who had been deported from the United States to a prison in the African kingdom of Eswatini has been repatriated back to his native country, government officials in Eswatini and Jamaica said this week.
The man, Orville Etoria, was freed on arrival in Jamaica, according to the country’s top diplomat in southern Africa.
Mr. Etoria’s deportation to a prison in Africa, where he had no ties, generated alarm among rights groups and activists, who argued that he had been unlawfully detained because he faced no criminal charges. Officials in the Trump administration said that Mr. Etoria, a convicted murderer, and four other immigrants deported to Eswatini were “barbaric,” and a danger to American citizens.
Mr. Etoria, 62, was convicted of fatally shooting a man in Brooklyn nearly three decades ago. He served 25 years in prison, completed his parole and was living free in New York, where he was working at a men’s shelter, when immigration officials arrested him this year.
Since starting his second term, Mr. Trump has sought to deport immigrants in record numbers, in part by brokering deals with countries to accept American deportees. Some legal experts have criticized the practice, saying it puts immigrants in harm’s way because they may end up in nations with poor human rights records.
The Trump administration has sought to use the threat of being sent to a far-flung country as a deterrent to illegal immigration. Administration officials initially said that Mr. Etoria’s home country had refused to take him, a claim Jamaican officials denied.
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