United States immigration authorities have dramatically stepped up detentions and deportations since January 2025, when Donald Trump became president.
asserted
Trump → step → January
Trump campaigned on a pledge to implement the “largest deportation operation in American history”.
asserted
Trump → campaign → history
Officers with the Department of Homeland Security, the agency tasked with the crackdown, now make thousands of arrests a day across the country.
asserted
Officers → task → country
That includes people who are seeking asylum in the US, who are supposed to be given a chance to explain dangers they might face in their home country.
uncertain
they → include → country
And US law and international treaties, like the United Nations Convention Against Torture, prohibit authorities from deporting someone to any country in which they will be persecuted or tortured.
asserted
they → prohibit → which
Many of those being detained in the US immigration crackdown say they are at risk of being hurt or killed if they return to their native countries, so the Trump administration has looked for alternative places to deport them, including places someone might have no cultural or legal ties to.
uncertain
someone → detain → ties
Third-country deportations, as the practice is known, have been criticised by the US as well as global rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the UN.
asserted
practice → know → International
Critics of the practice say some of the countries taking in the deportees have a record of human rights abuses themselves, or are so dangerous that the US government tells its own citizens not to travel there.
asserted
government → say → citizens
They also say there is little to ensure these third countries will give deportees a fair hearing on their cases for asylum, and in the end might send them back to their native countries to face persecution there.
uncertain
countries → say → persecution
Third-country deportations are not new, but rights groups say they were extremely rare before the Trump administration, and have never been used by the US at the scale they are now.
asserted
they → say → scale
Those being sent to other countries, rights groups say, would not have been deported without their consent.
asserted
groups → send → consent
Some US courts have said the practice is illegal, but the US Supreme Court has allowed it to continue, including in a ruling in September.
asserted
it → say → September
Experts at the UN have said the practice was leading to a “cascade of human rights violations” across the globe, threatening to undo norms around how refugees and asylum seekers are treated.
asserted
refugees → say → norms
A closer look at the third-country deportations
Rights groups have tried to tally forcible third-country deportations, and according to the nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First, more than 25,000 people have been subject to forcible third-country deportations so far, based on media reports and information from attorneys.
uncertain
people → try → attorneys
The Department of Homeland Security’s own data includes more than 16,000 cases of third-country deportations since Trump came into office in January 2025 and August 2026, the latest month for which data is available.
asserted
data → include → which
The data, provided to the Deportation Data Project based at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles and analysed by Al Jazeera, is likely an undercount.
asserted
data → provide → Jazeera
Deportations to these countries need the approval of authorities there, so the Trump administration has sought to make agreements, or reach informal understandings on how to send deportees to a growing list of countries.
asserted
administration → need → countries
Some countries have agreed to keep deportees in prisons, like El Salvador and Eswatini.
asserted
countries → agree → Salvador
Others have agreed to hold deportees temporarily, with some signing Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the US, or “Safe Third Country Agreements”, which allow deportees to pursue asylum claims in a third country that has agreed to host them.
uncertain
that → agree → them
According to rights groups Refugees International and Human Rights First, many of those deported have no idea where they are being sent, and end up finding themselves in countries where they do not speak the language and have little cultural understanding.
uncertain
they → accord → understanding
Some don’t even have any documents like passports or identification cards, making it difficult to live there.
asserted
it → have → passports
The list of countries people are being deported to has grown as the US offers financial aid, or business or visa concessions, in exchange for countries taking in third-country nationals the Trump administration wants to remove.
asserted
administration → deport → nationals
Liberia has agreed to take up to 1,200 deportees, for instance.
asserted
Liberia → agree → instance
The Trump administration at one point said it would extend the validity of certain visas for Liberians from 12 to 36 months, and has committed $124m for the country’s health services.
asserted
it → say → services
In Cameroon, which agreed to take third-country nationals from the US in December 2025, the Trump administration has pledged to give $30m for the UN’s refugee work there, and $400m over the coming years for the country’s health services.
asserted
administration → agree → services
The Aporia
