Trump administration resumes third-country deportations

The Trump administration resumed its controversial third-country deportation policy on Tuesday, sending five migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen, and Cuba to Eswatini, a small nation in southern Africa. The move follows a recent US Supreme Court ruling that allowed the practice to continue after a legal pause.

The deportation was announced on social media by the Department of Homeland Security. “NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed — This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. She said the deportees had been convicted of serious crimes, including murder, assault, and robbery.



Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, shares borders with South Africa and covers approximately 6,700 square miles. The New York Times had previously reported US government efforts to secure agreements with over 50 countries to accept deportees who were not their nationals.

Since early in the Trump administration, DHS has conducted similar third-country deportations. In February, migrants from China, Iran, and Pakistan were deported to Panama and Costa Rica. Venezuelans were later sent to El Salvador, and earlier this month, eight migrants were flown to South Sudan after weeks of legal delays.

Those eight had spent six weeks in Djibouti while a federal court considered whether migrants had adequate time to express fears of torture in the third country. That court ruling was paused by the Supreme Court, allowing the administration to proceed.

Last week, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued internal guidelines allowing faster deportations if the State Department received assurances from the receiving country regarding the migrants’ safety. In certain cases, deportations could proceed within six hours even without such assurances.

Meanwhile, the administration has continued urging unauthorized immigrants to voluntarily leave the US, warning of consequences like detention in facilities such as the one in Florida nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

In a dissenting opinion, US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the policy. “What the government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,” she wrote.