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Imagine a person is detained for being an illegal immigrant in the US, fully admits it, and makes zero attempt to contest their deportation. However, this person refuses to state what country they're from, and the authorities don't find any foreign passport or other evidence.

What would happen to this person, given that the government wouldn't know where to deport them to?

Note that in this hypothetical the person is not claiming to be stateless, and fully admits to being the citizen of some country, but refuses to say which.

Brennan Vincent
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2 Answers2

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Simpsons detention

Administrative detention is lawful in a limited number of circumstances including where a person is awaiting deportation. Following NZYQ v Minister for Immigration 2023 HCA 37, it becomes unlawful once there is no reasonable prospect of repatriation such as where a person is stateless or their country of citizenship has refused their return.

That’s not the situation here since the inability of the government to determine this person’s nationality is a result of that person’s acts or omissions; basically, they just have to state their nationality and the government could arrange for their deportation. So, this person stays in detention until they speak up. Or they die.

Administrative detention is not available where the person cannot say what their nationality is, for example, if they had dementia, a head injury, or was a child.

Dale M
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The United States only has to find one other country that will take a deported person. In most cases this would be their country of origin, but the US can ask a third country to take this person. Sometimes third countries have agreed, but usually for notorious deportees.

David Smith
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