Trump team considers 'illegal' workaround to speed up key campaign promise: report

Donald Trump's incoming administration intends to deport migrants to countries they've never visited if their home countries refuse to accept them, according to a new report.

Three sources familiar with the plans say administration officials are preparing a list of countries – including but not limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada – where they would send undocumented migrants as part of planned mass deportations, although it's not clear they would be allowed to legally work or live in those nations, reported NBC News.

“President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to stop the invasion of illegal immigrants, secure the border, and deport dangerous criminals and terrorists that make our communities less safe," said transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. "He will deliver."

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It's also not clear what pressure the transition team is applying to the targeted countries to secure an agreement, or what the president-elect might do once he's inaugurated, but the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sued his first administration over a policy that sent migrants on a relatively small scale to Guatemala under an agreement with that country.

“We sued over this type of policy during the first Trump administration because it was illegal and put asylum-seekers at grave risk," said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.

The plan to deport migrants to third-party countries is under consideration as a workaround to logistical challenges for what Trump has promised would be “the largest deportation operation in American history," and the sources said he also wants Mexico to accept non-Mexicans who are deported from the U.S.

"The sources said that getting Mexico to agree may not be easy, and that Trump will use the threat of tariffs in an effort to compel Mexico to comply," NBC News reported. "The sources also told NBC News the incoming administration has a goal of deporting migrants within a week of their arrest and believes this policy will help expedite deportations."