First 20 Deportees Land in Liberia Under Deal for Up to 1,200 Third-Country Removals

A U.S. deportation flight landed in Liberia Thursday, carrying the first 20 people under a new agreement that will send as many as 1,200 non-Liberian deportees to the West African country over the next year.

The plane left an ICE detention hub in Alexandria, Louisiana, stopped in Dakar, Senegal, and landed at Roberts International Airport near Monrovia at 12:45 p.m. local time, according to Reuters. The aircraft was operated by Eastern Airlines, a charter company unrelated to the historic Eastern Air Lines. Eastern Air Lines flew about 550 of ICE's roughly 2,100 deportation flights last month, according to Human Rights First as cited by The American Prospect.

Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told Reuters most of the arrivals came from Latin America, specifically Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia, with the full 1,200 expected to include African nationals plus people from North America, South America and the Caribbean. At least one expected arrival is from Brazil, according to an immigration attorney whose client was told he'd be sent there, The American Prospect reported.

What Liberia says it's doing

Liberian officials framed the deal as consistent with the country's founding as a haven for freed and formerly enslaved Black Americans in the 19th century. In a statement, the government said it would not deport anyone onward "to their home country or country of former habitual residence until a final decision has been made regarding any pending protection claims."

Liberia's government said arrivals are "not criminals and are not being prosecuted in any manner under United States or Liberian law." Officials said they'll be received "as guests," free to leave the country whenever they want or to apply for asylum in Liberia. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency will provide services, according to Reuters.

Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said at a Tuesday briefing that most deportees had committed migration-related violations, according to the Associated Press.

Liberia says it isn't asking for direct compensation for taking the deportees, according to Fox News, though Reuters reported the U.S. awarded Liberia $5 million this year for "migration management activities." The Guardian reported a broader package tied to the arrangement: the U.S. agreed to extend visitor visas for Liberians from 12 to 36 months and pledged $124 million in assistance.

The legal fight underneath it

Immigration lawyers say the arrangement is being used to sidestep U.S. court protections. According to the AP and PBS, nearly all of roughly 23,000 people removed to third countries under similar deals so far in Trump's second term were either asylum seekers whose cases closed without a hearing, or people who'd won judicial orders barring their deportation to their home countries, some after living in the U.S. for decades under those protections.

The Trump administration disputes that framing. The State Department has declined to detail the Liberia agreement's terms, according to reporting cited by NewsCord's outlet roundup, and previously disputed the characterization of its third-country enforcement record when Senate Democrats raised concerns, according to The Guardian.

That dispute centers on a February report from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats, which found the administration paid more than $32 million to five governments, several with poor human rights records, to accept about 300 third-country deportees. The report cited $1.1 million per person paid to Rwanda for seven deportees and $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea for 29 people, a sum the report says exceeded all U.S. aid to that country over the prior eight years. The report also found more than 80 percent of people sent to third countries under these deals eventually returned to their home countries anyway, often at additional cost to taxpayers.

A newer report from Refugees International and Human Rights First, cited by The Guardian and The American Prospect, says the administration has now struck deals with at least 35 countries and sent roughly 23,000 people to 26 of them as of early August, making the Liberia arrangement the largest single deal to date. The American Prospect reports Liberia is the 12th African country known to accept third-country nationals under this program.

What's genuinely unresolved

Whether people sent to Liberia will actually get a fair shot at asylum there, or end up stuck without status, is untested. Liberia's pledge not to remove anyone before "a final decision" on protection claims has no independent verification mechanism described in any of the agency statements so far.

The State Department has not released the underlying agreement text, so terms beyond what Liberian officials have disclosed remain unconfirmed. Whether the $124 million package and expanded visa terms reported by The Guardian are formally documented anywhere beyond Liberia's own statements is also unclear. The next test comes as the remaining roughly 1,180 people covered under the deal begin arriving over the coming year.