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 [7] released May 5 by Human Rights First and Refugees International.
The organizations report [8] that the administration in April re-arrested and forcibly transferred to third countries people who had previously been granted withholding of removal [9] 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 in violation [10] of a court order then in effect.
Approximately 16,000 of the documented transfers have been to Mexico. That figure includes thousands of individuals [12]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 [13], 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 [14]," 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 [8] 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 [15]Immigration and 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 [16], and the suspension-of-entry provision at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f) [17]. Federal judges have held several uses of those authorities unlawful, including in challenges to expulsions of Venezuelans to El Salvador [18] and to forced transfers of people with final removal orders carried out without notice or an opportunity to raise fear-based claims.
From JURIST [19], May 5. Used with permission.
See our last report on the third-country deportations [20].
