This article, from Al Jazerra America, is rather interesting. In my own practice I have encountered many situations where ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the internal enforcement bureau of the Dept. of Homeland Security) is frustrated in its attempts to remove people because it cannot obtain travel documents for them. Certain countries simply do not cooperate with its requests, making removal impossible. However, this is the first time I have heard of a dodgy "honorary consul" for Cameroon (an American in Texas who had never been to the country when he was appointed) use equally dodgy documents to help ICE deport people.
This, from the article, is more common:
In a report last year, the American Civil Liberties Union said that officers with DHS appear to have provided false and misleading information to many deportees in order to secure their signatures on voluntary departure forms and formal deportation orders. According to Sarah Mehta, the ACLU researcher who authored the report, DHS officers have pressured individuals into signing voluntary departure forms and deportation orders. In some cases, people were told they would be released to go home if they signed the papers or that they would lose their children if they refused, Mehta said. Even people with legal status in the U.S. have sometimes been coerced into signing removal orders.
ICE also manages to deport U.S. citizens. This is not an isolated occurrence: "Although no exact numbers exist, ICE regularly detains and deports U.S. citizens without ever providing them with a lawyer." Just "Google" "ICE deports US citizens" to get some idea of the problem.
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