The Trump administration’s practice of deporting immigrants thousands of miles – and sometimes oceans away – to countries where they have no ties must change, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
Immigration officers must give people who have been detained an opportunity to contest their deportation to a third country, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled on Friday, upholding a lower court ruling. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers must allow immigrants “a meaningful opportunity to contest” before sending immigrants to countries thousands of miles away from the U.S. and their homelands.
“An individual’s right to contest removal to a country based on a fear of persecution in that country means little if one does not receive prior notice of the intended removal destination and a meaningful opportunity to contest that destination,” District Judge Brian E. Murphy said in his ruling.
Significance. According to multiple non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, more than 22,000 people have been deported to at least 26 countries through the Trump administration’s “third-party deportation program” as of August 2026.
In some cases, the Trump administration has spent millions of dollars to deport people who are originally from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and were deported to countries in Africa, where the primary languages might include French, Amharic, or Swahili.
Power structure. Trump’s third-country deportation program was initiated by a presidential action in January 2025. He directed the Secretary of State to work with the U.S. Attorney General and Department of Homeland Security secretary to “take all appropriate action to facilitate additional international cooperation and agreements … including [by entering into safe third-country agreements] or other agreements under any other applicable provision of law,” according to congressional records.
Overlooked angle. Since then, the Trump administration has secretly been building its third-country deportation network by pledging $410 million to help facilitate agreements with 31 countries, according to an investigation by The Washington Post in which it obtained and reviewed internal government documents.
Some of the countries that the U.S. has paid to be part of the third-country deportation network are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to The Washington Post analysis.
At least 13 countries received a total of $81 million in direct payments from the Office of Remigration as part of agreements, according to The Washington Post.
What experts say. The American Civil Liberties Union said ICE officers have deliberately neglected to share flight information for those being deported through the third-country deportations program.
“The flights are also a closely guarded secret, making it virtually impossible for detained individuals to find attorneys and contest their deportation to a place where they may face persecution or torture,” said Sarah Mehta, the deputy director of policy and government affairs for the Equality Division at the ACLU in her piece for the organization’s website. “The government’s secrecy appears to be a calculated attempt to rush people out of the country before court intervention and before the media or Congress can corroborate who is on the flights.”
Who this impacts. Those who have been deported to countries where they have no connections have told news organizations and aid groups that they often arrive disoriented and have to figure out how to navigate where they’ve been placed. Earlier this year, Paola Ferreira Dos Santos, a Brazilian national previously living in the U.S. who was deported to Liberia told CBS News she wasn’t told where the plane was headed. She learned only when it arrived.
“I was the first to get off the plane and they said welcome to Liberia.”
