US immigration authorities have sharply expanded detentions and removals since Donald Trump took office as president in January 2025. The list of countries receiving deportees has grown alongside that push.
Trump campaigned on promises to carry out what he called the “largest deportation operation in American history”. Officers from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency leading the crackdown, now make thousands of arrests every day across the country. Among those detained are people seeking asylum, who are meant to have a chance to explain the dangers they could face at home.
US law and international treaties, including the UN Convention Against Torture, bar authorities from sending anyone to a country where they would face persecution or torture.
Asylum seekers and the risk of being sent home
Many detainees say they would be harmed or killed if returned to their home countries. The Trump administration has therefore looked for other destinations, including places where a deportee may have no cultural or legal ties. This approach, known as third-country deportation, has been criticised by the US and by global rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the UN.
Critics say some of the receiving countries have poor human rights records of their own, or are so dangerous that the US government advises its citizens not to travel there. They also argue there is little to guarantee deportees a fair hearing on their asylum claims, and that they could ultimately be sent back to face persecution in their native countries.
Scale of the practice and its legal challenges
Rights groups say third-country deportations were extremely rare before the Trump administration, and have never been carried out on the scale seen now. In their view, people sent abroad would not have been removed without their consent.
Some US courts have ruled the practice illegal. However, the US Supreme Court has allowed it to continue, including in a ruling issued in September.
Experts at the UN have said the practice is leading to a “cascade of human rights violations” around the world. They warn it could undermine established norms on how refugees and asylum seekers are treated.
Counting cases and deals with partner countries
The nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First, which have tried to tally forcible third-country deportations, say more than 25,000 people have been subjected to them so far. Their figures are based on media reports and information from lawyers.
Department of Homeland Security data records more than 16,000 third-country deportation cases from the time Trump took office in January 2025 through August 2026, the latest month for which data is available. The data was provided to the Deportation Data Project, based at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, and was analysed separately by a news organisation. It is likely an undercount.
Because such removals require the approval of the receiving authorities, Washington has pursued formal agreements or informal understandings with a growing number of countries. Some, including El Salvador and Eswatini, have agreed to keep deportees in prisons. Others have agreed to hold them temporarily, with some signing Asylum Cooperative Agreements, also called Safe Third Country Agreements, which allow deportees to pursue asylum claims in the host country.
According to Refugees International and Human Rights First, many deportees have no idea where they are being sent. They may arrive in countries where they do not speak the language and have little grasp of local culture. Some have no passports or identification cards, which makes it difficult to live there.
Financial aid, business benefits or visa concessions have been offered in exchange for countries accepting third-country nationals the administration wants to remove. Liberia has agreed to take up to 1,200 deportees. The administration said at one point it would extend the validity of certain visas for Liberians from 12 to 36 months, and has committed $124m to the country’s health services.
Cameroon agreed in December 2025 to take third-country nationals from the US. The administration has pledged $30m for UN refugee work there and $400m over the coming years for the country’s health services.
