Costa Rican court orders release of illegal immigrants deported to the country by Trump

A Costa Rican court on Tuesday ordered the country's authorities to release foreign immigrants it was holding in a shelter after they were deported by the Donald Trump administration. The resolution comes on the eve of a visit by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Approximately two hundred immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, several Asian and African countries, including 80 children, were brought in February to the Central American country under a agreement between the administrations of Trump and Rodrigo Chaves.

The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice partially accepted an appeal filed in March in favor of the migrants and its ruling gives Migration 15 days to arrange for the deportees to have their immigration status "defined" and be "released," according to the resolution to which AFP had access.

Precedent to avoid a similar agreement

The migrants were housed in the Centro de Atención Temporal de Migrantes (Catem), 220 miles south of San Jose, on the border with Panama. However, due to an avalanche of NGO protests, the government finally allowed them to move beyond the migrant center in April.

Some accepted voluntary repatriation. Currently, 28 are at Catem, 13 of them minors, according to official data. Despite the fact that the majority have already left, the habeas corpus appeal needed to run its course until it was resolved this Tuesday and will now serve as a precedent to avoid a similar agreement.

Court asks authorities to determine "what kind of assistance" immigrants need

The court also ordered Costa Rican authorities to "determine what type of assistance in health, education, housing and, in general, social assistance they require from the state."

The resolution was published a day before the visit of the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, who will meet with President Chaves and tour the Los Lagos temporary immigration detention center about 10 miles from San Jose.