Trump admin has transferred 17,400 to 'third countries'
The Trump administration has built a network of third-country transfer agreements with more than 30 governments and used them to remove over 17,400 people, in some cases in defiance of federal court orders and after individuals had won their release through habeas corpus, according to data released May 5 by Human Rights First and Refugees International.
The organizations report that the administration in April re-arrested and forcibly transferred to third countries people who had previously been granted withholding of removal by US immigration judges and had prevailed on habeas petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The report documents an attempted transfer of individuals to Libya last year in violation of a court order then in effect.
Approximately 16,000 of the documented transfers have been to Mexico. That figure includes thousands of individuals the administration failed to acknowledge in a March 5 disclosure to a federal court. Roughly 1,400 additional people have been sent to 20 other countries, including Eswatini, South Sudan and Uganda. A March 2026 agreement with Costa Rica provides for regular weekly transfers.
The tracker reports that the administration has paid at least $44 million to receiving governments in connection with the agreements and has used the threat of third-country transfer to pressure detained immigrants into abandoning their legal claims.
Separately, the tracker reports that government attorneys have filed motions to "pretermit," or dismiss without merits review, thousands of pending asylum cases in immigration court on the basis of Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Uganda. Citing data compiled by immigration advocacy group Mobile Pathways from Executive Office for Immigration Review records, the tracker counts nearly 9,500 such pretermissions as of February 2026. The following month, the Department of Homeland Security directed Immigration & Customs Enforcement attorneys to stop filing new pretermission motions but did not withdraw those already pending.
The administration has invoked a range of statutory and constitutional authorities to justify the transfers, including the Alien Enemies Act, and the suspension-of-entry provision at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f). Federal judges have held several uses of those authorities unlawful, including in challenges to expulsions of Venezuelans to El Salvador and to forced transfers of people with final removal orders carried out without notice or an opportunity to raise fear-based claims.
From JURIST, May 5. Used with permission.
See our last report on the third-country deportations.
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US-DR deportation, militarization deals
The government of right-wing Dominican President Luis Abinader announced May 12 that it had agreed to receive "third-country" deportees from the United States. Though the details of the agreement are not yet clear, the move represents a stark reversal for Abinader, who said last February that his country "would not accept [deportees] from other countries, only Dominicans." The announcement was made all the more surprising given that Abinader is currently overseeing one of the region's most violent deportation regimes, deporting upwards of 10,000 Haitians per week and nearly 380,000 in 2025. The government also announced that it was granting an extension to a November deal that enabled US military forces to operate from restricted Dominican territory in an effort to aid the Trump administration's alleged fight against drug trafficking. (NACLA Update)
Trump's 'third-country removals' top 25,000
Twenty-five thousand people who came to the US searching for safety, stability and a chance at a better life have been deported by the Trump administration to countries they have no connection to. A new global investigation by the international journalism network Forbidden Stories has pulled back the veil of secrecy surrounding these deportations, highlighting the brutal tactics and impact on individual lives. A US court recently ruled that the deportations, known benignly as "third-country removals," are illegal. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to continue the practice. (TNH)
SCOTUS allows Trump admin to resume third-country deportations
he US Supreme Court on Sept. 29 cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume deportations under its third-country removal policy, while agreeing to hear arguments on the policy’s legality in December. Four noncitizens filed the class-action lawsuit in March 2025, challenging the administration’s policy of deporting people to third countries without meaningful notice or an opportunity to raise fears of persecution or torture there.
In February of this year, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that affected immigrants were entitled to various protections, including "meaningful notice before removal to any third country" and the opportunity to challenge removal to any specific third country. The ruling set aside the policy. The First US Circuit Court of Appeals largely affirmed that judgment on Sept. 18.
In staying the order, the Supreme Court directed the parties to prepare arguments on the district court’s authority to adjudicate the case, as well as on the legality of the Trump administration policies establishing third-country removals.
In challenging the lower court findings, the Trump administration argued that the district court lacked authority to review the claims or grant class-wide relief, and that federal law and due process did not require the additional procedures the courts imposed before third-country removals.
Lawyers for the immigrants argued that the ruling did not prohibit third-country deportations but required the government to provide an opportunity to seek protection before removal.
The court's three Democrat-appointed justices, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, would have denied the stay, the unsigned order stated. (Jurist)