What exactly are these deportations
The Trump administration's forced expatriation strategy: Mechanics, costs and legal implications of agreements with third countries
Since returning to the White House in 2025, the Donald Trump-led presidential team has dramatically stepped up the relocation of foreign nationals, sending more than 25,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to nations other than their home countries. Human rights lawyers characterize these arrangements, known as 'third-country agreements', as a clear demonstration of force. The stated purpose is to instill fear among those entering the United States without permission, hoping that they will avoid the future harsh consequences of such a decision. In order to build the most comprehensive documentation on a policy that has largely worked behind closed doors, The Guardian has joined a consortium of 23 other media organisations. This initiative, known as the Deportation Project, was coordinated by the Parisian entity Forbidden Stories. The collaborative journalism group interviewed more than 100 people, either directly affected by U.
S. efforts to eradicate unauthorized immigration or involved in the administrative process. In addition, official documents detailing the terms agreed upon by US officials with governments around the globe were reviewed.
What exactly are these deportations to third countries? The Trump administration has negotiated and signed 35 separate agreements that allow it to send migrants to destinations with which they have no obvious connection. Legal experts argue that the administration is exploiting a legislative loophole: under U. S. law, it is considered illegal to bring a person back to a country where there is a real risk of persecution. The Department of National Security therefore opts for sending migrants and asylum seekers to other countries, hoping to avoid this restriction. However, in many cases, host countries in turn re-deport individuals exactly from where they originally fled.
Who are the persons subject
Is this approach new to the current mandate? Although experimentation with these mechanisms took place during Trump's first term, the vast majority of treaties with foreign states were not concluded until after 2025. Nearly a third of these countries are on the African continent. The effort is coordinated by Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff and a fierce critic of most forms of immigration to the United States. Operations are managed within the Bureau of Immigration, a newly established section within the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The name of this office incorporates a term popularized by the far right to describe the forced expulsion of ethnic minority immigrants.
Who are the persons subject to these measures? About 20,000 individuals were transported by bus to Mexico, while at least 5,000 other migrants were boarded on planes bound for countries in Latin America, Africa, Central Asia and the Caribbean. The administration claims that the emphasis is on the removal from the territory of those with a criminal record. But the people The Guardian interviewed for this project include a nurse originally from Sierra Leone, who was her parents' primary caregiver in the US; an anti-government protester who left the Iranian regime; and a gay man who fled Ghana after being discovered by his family, who followed him. Although the State Department states that it is a priority to deport those with a criminal record, the witnesses interviewed said they had no such record.
Moreover, immigration judges had already decided that they should have remained in the United States, fearing credible risks of injury if they returned home. Internal State Department documents indicate that a majority of the 35 signatory countries have explicitly stated that they will not accept migrants with violent criminal records.
Why would third countries agree to participate in this system? Although the final terms of most contracts remain difficult to decipher, the Trump administration is transferring considerable amounts, in the millions of dollars, to the 35 nations that have agreed to host foreign migrants, both short-term and long-term. The State Department also uses the external assistance budget to make these offers more attractive by allocating funds to UN agencies such as