More foreign affairs in a crazy, mixed-up world

Mixed signals from an increasingly erratic administration's poorly-conceived policies

Three items caught my eye this week, among many news items vying for attention. They offer a wildly varying cross-section of elements of U.S. strategy—if you can call it that—in foreign affairs, particularly as it relates to immigration policy. I am more puzzled than ever by the Trump administration’s confusing steps; I cannot fathom what is going on, as if the inmates have taken over the asylum.

First, the temporary release of 64-year-old Donna Kashanian from ICE detention in Louisiana—welcomed by many observers—was a rare bright note. Readers will recall she was snatched from her New Orleans front yard, in gardening gloves, with no warning for being an Iranian overstay—albeit for 47 years—by masked ICE agents in unmarked cars.

Married to her U.S. citizen husband for 35 years, she was marked for deportation under a 33-year-old order by an immigration judge—which she was then allowed to appeal. She had followed the rules faithfully until June 22, when ICE decided to arrest her without warning.

Quick public calls by her neighbors and others for her release spurred at least one Republican congressman from Louisiana—Steve Scalise, not widely known for standing up to the Trump administraton—to intercede on her behalf. According to CBS News, Scalise’s intervention was “absolutely crucial” to her release.

“After a surge of community support for Kashanian, Scalise, who represents Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, including the New Orleans suburbs, told [news media] he’s going to push the Department of Homeland Security to give Kashanian ‘a fair shake’ when she applies for asylum again after being denied previously. … Kashanian should be judged on ‘her life’s work’ and role in her community,” he said.

Dozens of Kashanian's neighbors wrote letters of support for her, which were shared with the Trump administration. CBS reported the letters praised Kashanian’s participation for years as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and the NOLA Tree Project, a nonprofit group that plants trees, repairs homes, and delivers free meals. “She's just been an incredible volunteer and servant to our Lakeview community, everybody knows her because of all she gives and does,” said her neighbor Connie Uddo.

Donna Kashanian reunited with husband and daughter. Courtesy Kaitlynn Milne.

[See “ICE releases 64-year-old,” July 9, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-frees-mandonna-kashanian-iranian-mother-agents-detained-after-u-s-bombed-iran/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a .]

Kashanian was brought home by her husband and daughter this week, after spending more than two weeks in detention. An Iranian national, she entered the United States as a student in 1978, then unsuccessfully applied for political asylum after the fall of the Shah.

She cannot be deported to her native Iran because no diplomatic relations exist between the two countries. A brusque statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security—no friend to undocumented immigrants—said “the facts of this case have not changed. Mandonna Kashanian is in this country illegally … she has exhausted all her legal options.”

DHS may yet decide to deport her anyway, if ICE Barbie—Kristi Noem, the putative head of DHS—and Tom Homan, the real power over there—continue their irrational rampage. Scalise’s sudden intervention may lead to a different outcome. He could even sponsor a private bill to grant her U.S. citizenship—a long shot, though not unprecedented—and more than a few Republicans in the House might support him.

Cross your fingers, and stay tuned for more developments.

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Second, it was reported by national media that the Trump administration has made good on its long-promised threat to deport convicted criminals to South Sudan. Its first group of eight deportees, held for several weeks at a U.S. base in Djibouti while their fate was decided in U.S. federal court, included men from “Cuba, Mexico, Laos, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, who were ordered deported from the U.S. after being convicted of crimes, including murder, homicide, sexual assault, lascivious acts with a child, and robbery,” according to a report from CBS News.

Shackled deportees land in South Sudan July 4. Courtesy Department of Homeland Security

[See “U.S. deports men from Asia and Latin America,” July 7, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-deportation-asia-latin-america-criminal-records-south-sudan/ .]

What will happen to the deportees in South Sudan is uncertain. It is a country where political unrest and violence often take precedence over rule of law, and where prison conditions are “harsh and life-threatening,” according to the latest human rights report (2023) compiled by the U.S. State Department. [See https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/south-sudan/ .]

Human rights advocates fear the men could face jail time, torture, or other harms in South Sudan, argung the deportations are designed to punish the men for their crimes, even though they have already served criminal sentences in the United States. U.S. citizens are already warned not to travel there under any circumstances.

“The U.S. State Department warns Americans against all travel to South Sudan, yet deported these men there without any due process,” Trina Realmuto, an attorney for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, told CBS News. “Make no mistake about it, these deportations were punitive and unconstitutional.”

They may also be fatal. But DHS is resolutely sanguine about their fate. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed complaints about their possible mistreatment as unimportant, claiming “This Independence Day marks another victory for the safety and security of the American people.”

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Third, the Trump administration confirmed it had resumed transporting groups of deportees to Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base long notorious for housing dozens of imprisoned foreign terrorists—almost all of whom have been transferred elsewhere. And DHS has also expanded the categories of deportees being housed there—including, for the first time, more than two dozen “high-risk” foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes in the United States.

According to a statement issued Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security, Guantanamo Bay is now housing 72 detainees from 26 countries—Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Russia, Somalia, St. Kitts-Nevis, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Around a dozen of the newest group were described as “low-risk” and were being housed in a barracks facility called the Migrant Operations Center, presumably to be transported onward in the near future. Many of the nations listed routinely accept U.S. deportees, including violent criminals, under existing agreements with the United States—including Jamaica and the United Kingdom. Others, including Colombia, have extradition treaties but have not always cooperated fully with U.S. demands to admit military deportation flights, which the Trump administration prefers.

Since February, the administration has used Guantanamo as a sort of “holding facility” for nearly 700 mainly Spanish-speaking immigrants en route either to their home countries or third-nation facilities, such as El Salvador’s CECOT prison. So far, the total number held in the Cuban detention facility has not approached even a significant fraction of the 30,000 spots predicted by Trump officials, but the costs of getting them there has already been enormous—$21 million expended through early April, without adding in the cost of guarding (nearly 700 personnel) and minimal care.

[See “Trump administration using Guantanamo,” July 8, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-guantanamo-detain-foreigners-from-26-countries/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a .]

But in an unusual move, DHS officials saw fit to share the names and criminal records of more than two dozen current “high-risk” detainees, including those convicted of homicide; sexual offenses, including against children; child pornography; assault with a weapon; kidnapping; drug smuggling; and robbery. The list seemed more like a heavy-handed attempt to justify all deportations, including the low-risk individuals being deported for overstays on tourist visas.

All the 26 “high-rise” individuals have received final deportation orders, and are being held at Camp IV, the post-9/11 prison complex at Guantanamo Bay that also holds around a dozen war on terror-era detainees—though the newcomers are physically segregated from the remaining terrorists.

[See “DHS releases names of worst of the worst,” July 8, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/08/dhs-releases-names-worst-worst-convicted-criminal-illegal-aliens-detained .]

DHS offered no explanation of why the unnamed “low-risk” deportees were not being sent directly to their countries of origin, rather than being detained at Guantanamo—or why El Salvador “high-risk” deportees on this list, for exampe, were not immediately flown to El Salvador instead.

Nor did it indicate how long the current group of detainees who cannot be deported to their countries of origin—including those from China, Iran, Laos, Russia, and Vietnam, for instance, which do not have extradition treaties with the United States—will remain at Guantanamo.

Note: Extradition and deportation are entirely separate processes. Having an extradition treaty generally ensures that deportations will be accomplished more readily, but having an extradition treaty does not in itself guarantee acceptance of U.S. deportees, as in the case of Venezuela, which declines to cooperate with U.S. officials on most issues but has not abrogated its treaty. The United States has extradition treaties with 116 countries at present. [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-without-extradition .]

Next time: More foreign affairs in a crazy, mixed-up world