Sept. 2, 2025

Statement from Tin Thanh Nguyen, Attorney for Two Southeast Asian Immigrants Deported to Eswatini

As Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces possible removal to Uganda, two Southeast Asian men secretly deported to Eswatini remain detained without charges, legal counsel, or a clear explanation

Questions please email Adolfo Flores, Flores Strategic Communications, adolfo@florescomms.com

“New reporting from the New York Times has confirmed that five men deported to Eswatini — including my clients from Vietnam and Laos — are being held without charges, legal counsel, or any explanation from either government. This reporting validates what attorneys have warned for weeks: the United States is orchestrating secretive third-country transfers with no meaningful legal process, resulting in indefinite detention.

For more than six weeks my clients have been imprisoned in Eswatini without charge, without access to legal counsel and without basic due process. This is especially alarming given that the U.S. State Department has documented credible reports of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in Eswatini.

I was retained by the men’s families to represent them, yet I have been repeatedly denied the opportunity to speak with either of them by phone and have been unable to confirm their conditions. Both men have had only limited video calls with their families, leaving me without a complete picture of their well-being. 

For weeks, the U.S. government has failed to explain why these men were sent to Eswatini instead of to their home countries. I call on the Government of the U.S. and Eswatini to release them from custody and facilitate their safe return to Vietnam and Laos. I am ready to work directly with the Vietnamese and Laotian governments to help repatriate them. The issue is that the U.S. government is not following its own procedures and the governments of Vietnam and Laos have still not had access to their citizens.

What is happening is not just unlawful. It is punitive. My clients already served their sentences and had been released into the community. Then, without warning and explanation from either the U.S. or Eswatini governments, they were arbitrarily arrested and sent to a country to which they have never ever been. They are now being punished indefinitely for a sentence they already served. They remain incarcerated in the largest prison in Eswatini, cut off from legal counsel and far from their families. This appears to violate fundamental principles of justice and due process that America claims to uphold.

An attorney in Eswatini, working with me and other counsel, has repeatedly tried to see my clients and the three other men held with them but was refused each time. My clients only learned after the fact that their attorney had been at the prison. Assertions that they refused legal visits are simply untrue.

A habeas petition challenging access to counsel was filed in Eswatini on Aug. 1 by the local attorney on behalf of the deported men. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 15, where the High Court will address the ongoing denial of legal access as part of our habeas petition.

Documents cited by the New York Times show that even Eswatini officials were unsure what the U.S. expected. They reportedly asked whether they were supposed to prosecute or sentence the men upon arrival, despite no new crimes being committed. This raises serious legal questions about the intent and integrity of the deportation and detention arrangements between the countries. 

This is what happens when deportation becomes transactional. People who have already served their sentences are being handed over to foreign governments and imprisoned again, this time without trial, charges, or legal access.

It remains unclear whether the Trump administration even attempted to repatriate them. Under its own policies, the U.S. is required to pursue return to a person’s country of citizenship and only consider third-country removal when that is ‘impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible.’ Neither the Vietnamese nor Laotian governments have publicly declined repatriation, and neither has had direct access to these men. My clients wish to return to their home countries, and I am ready to facilitate that process.

As Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces possible removal to Uganda, the cases of these five men secretly deported to Eswatini should also be scrutinized.

The U.S. government must immediately provide answers about my clients' conditions, ensure their safety and allow proper legal communication while working toward their release and repatriation.”

— Attributable to Tin Thanh Nguyen, Attorney for Two Southeast Asian Immigrants Deported to Eswatini

Attorneys Alma David and Mia Unger, who represent three of the men deported to Eswatini, have also raised serious legal and human rights concerns. David is representing a Yemeni and a Cuban national, while Unger represents Jamaican national Orville Etoria. You can read their statements here and here.

Background:

On July 16, 2025, five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen were deported to Eswatini. Their deportations follow the Supreme Court's June 2025 decision allowing the Trump administration to resume third-country removals with minimal notice, sometimes as little as six hours.

The Trump administration has been negotiating classified agreements with multiple nations, including countries like South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda and absolute monarchies like Eswatini, to accept foreign nationals they allege refuse to take them back. However, that is not the case for at least one of the five men deported to Eswatini. 

In a statement, The Legal Aid Society condemned the U.S. government's unlawful deportation of Orville Etoria, a citizen of Jamaica, to Eswatini, a country he had never been to and has no ties to, rather than Jamaica.

“The U.S. government has claimed—falsely—that Jamaica refused to accept him. Jamaica has publicly refuted that claim, confirming that it never blocked his return. These facts raise grave concerns about the legality and integrity of ICE’s removal operations and the U.S. government's treatment of immigrants with criminal records who have already paid their debt to society and rebuilt their lives," said The Legal Aid Society in a statement. 

Eswatini is a landlocked nation of just over one million people already struggling with poverty, unemployment, high crime rates, and overcrowded prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, human rights conditions are deteriorating following crackdowns on pro-democracy movements. 

There is also an active constitutional challenge to the U.S.–Eswatini deportation agreement lodged by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), the Eswatini Litigation Centre and the Rural Women’s Assembly. A hearing before the High Court of Eswatini is now scheduled for September 25, 2025. This remains distinct from the habeas briefing but underscores that judicial oversight is underway.

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Adolfo Flores is the founder of Flores Strategic Communications, a media consulting firm specializing in legal and immigration cases. Drawing on more than a decade of experience as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed News and the Los Angeles Times, he brings a sharp understanding of legal systems, public opinion and narrative strategy to his work. His background in national and immigration reporting informs his approach to fact-driven, legally precise and compelling media outreach.