Six Bhutanese refugees living in Pennsylvania were briefly held at Pike County Correctional Facility before being transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey. Four of the men were deported to Bhutan Friday.
Deported Bhutanese refugees in country less than 24 hours, at Nepal border
U.S. has no obligation once deported, former judge says.
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
Six Bhutanese refugees living in Pennsylvania were briefly held at Pike County Correctional Facility before being transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey. Four of the men were deported to Bhutan Friday.
Four Pennsylvania residents — Bhutanese refugees of ethnic cleansing in Bhutan in the 1980s and 1990s — were deported back to that country Thursday. Less than a day later, they were at the border between India and Nepal, according to a statement from Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas’ office.
He has been working closely with leaders of central Pennsylvania’s Bhutanese community, one of the largest in the country, who were worried about the treatment the men would face upon return.
“My goal is to do everything in my power to keep our community safe, seek answers from those in leadership and ensure that families are not left behind or forgotten,” said Tilak Niroula, leader of the regional Bhutanese community, in a statement Friday afternoon.
The four men from Pennsylvania were part of a group of 10 Bhutanese refugees sent to Bhutan, according to Douglas’ statement. They were transferred from Pike County Correctional Facility in northeastern Pennsylvania to Elizabeth Contract Detention Center in New Jersey on Wednesday, per ICE records.
As of Thursday morning, the men were released from ICE custody and on a plane to New Delhi, India. By Friday morning, they were in Paro, Bhutan, according to Douglas’ office. By the afternoon, they were in Panitanki, India, about a seven-hour drive away. The town is on the border with Nepal, less than 2 kilometers from the city center on the other side of the river.
Niroula met with Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s local staff on Wednesday, and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry on Friday, he said. He also met with representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Friday.
Shapiro said he expects Immigration and Customs Enforcement to follow the rule of law. A spokesperson for Fetterman’s office said they are working with ICE to determine the status of remaining Bhutanese refugees in ICE Custody. At least 11 such refugees from Pennsylvania remain in ICE custody, according to ICE records. Perry’s office did not respond for this story.
Of the 11 men still detained by ICE, seven were born in refugee camps in Nepal. Four of the men were born in Bhutan and may be subject to deportation to that country, as were the men deported Thursday.
“As this local crisis becomes international, I am deeply concerned about the implications for constituents both here at home and now abroad,” Douglas said. “There must be more time for legal due process before deportation — especially for refugees we’ve committed to resettle, who now may be facing dangerous and uncertain conditions.”
According to information currently available, ICE followed proper procedures for deportation, according to veteran immigration attorney Kerry Doyle. She served three years in various roles in the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, under the administration of President Joe Biden until 2024. She was an immigration judge for two months before being laid off in February by the Trump administration, along with her class of 13 other new judges, for unspecified reasons, she said.
“U.S. obligations internationally and then under U.S. law are just that the person has had an opportunity to make a claim of either fear of persecution or torture in the home country,” Doyle said.
If the individuals made those claims and had them rejected, failed to appeal or had appeals rejected, then that’s their due process, she said.
“Unfortunately, what happens when they get there is no longer a concern of the United States,” Doyle said.
All that is required for deportation, as far as the U.S. government is concerned, is a final order from a judge and the willingness of another country to accept them, Doyle said.
Bhutan’s consulate in New York has not responded to multiple requests for information about whether Bhutan offered citizenship to the 10 refugees or gave them any other guarantees, or why they were in the country for so short a time.
“Individuals who have been granted refugee status must be protected from being forced to return to their home country, where they may face persecution or harm,” according to a statement from a UNHCR spokesperson, speaking generally and not about the specifics of this case.
11 Bhutanese refugees from Pa. remain in ICE custody
For those who remain on U.S. soil, the circumstances of the 10 deported men could be used in legal arguments to prevent further deportation, Doyle said, but it will be a difficult task. The Bhutanese refugees would have to be able to demonstrate harm, such as consequences of becoming stateless.
Family members of at least one of the deported men, Bidur Khadka, were unaware that he had been given a final order of removal from an immigration judge in August 2023.
That is not uncommon, Doyle said. Immigrants in removal proceedings often represent themselves, as they are not entitled to a court-assigned attorney.
That is the story for one of the refugees still detained in Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center Philipsburg, according to his lawyer, Craig Shagin.
That refugee represented himself in his removal proceeding. He failed to argue that the crime he was being deported on was later dismissed, Shagin said. His client also failed to appeal the denial of his request to withhold removal from the country.
Shagin said he will soon file an appeal to reopen the case.
“It’s really quite bad they do this,” Shagin said of the immigration court system. The detainees don’t have lawyers and are left trying to argue highly technical areas of the law, and then are held to those arguments on appeal, he said.
Once a person has an order for removal, they can be deported immediately, according to Doyle.
“I would strongly recommend that everybody that’s in detention — because there is a great risk of being removed or deported imminently — that they file motions to reopen (their cases),” she said.
Neither Nepal’s office of the consulate in New York nor their U.S. embassy immediately responded to requests for comment Friday.
While ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, ICE spokesperson Jason Koontz previously indicated the men were not lawful permanent residents.
Based on their case records, 10 of the men appear to be legal residents of the U.S. They also appear to have criminal records, from charges including public drunkenness, domestic violence and felony assault.
WITF is releasing the names of individual detainees only with their families’ permission, or as they become part of the public record.
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