The first group of twenty deportees from the United States landed in Liberia on August 21, marking the start of an arrangement that could see the West African nation receive up to 1,200 people under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, according to Al Jazeera and The Guardian UK.
The group arrived at Roberts International Airport, located outside the capital, Monrovia. Liberia's information minister, Jerolinmek Piah, confirmed that the 1,200 deportees would include African nationals as well as people from North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
What Liberia Agreed to Accept
At a briefing on Tuesday, justice minister Natu Oswald Tweh said most of the deportees had committed migration-related violations. She added that those arriving would have the option to apply for asylum in Liberia if they chose to do so.
In exchange for taking in the deportees, the US agreed to extend visitor visas for Liberian citizens from 12 to 36 months and pledged $124 million in financial assistance. The deal is considered the largest single third-country deportation arrangement the Trump administration has pursued since returning to office.
A joint report by Refugees International and Human Rights First found that the administration has reached agreements with at least 35 countries and has sent roughly 23,000 people to 26 of them as of early August 2026.
Concerns Over Third-Country Deportations
Immigration lawyers have raised alarm over the practice, arguing the administration uses third-country deportation as a legal workaround to push asylum seekers back towards the home countries they originally fled, without directly returning them there. Critics note that in many cases, deportees are sent to countries they have never visited, where they may face safety risks and are left with little practical choice but to eventually return to the very places they were escaping.
A report published in February by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats found the Trump administration paid more than $32 million to five governments, several with poor human rights records, to accept roughly 300 third-country deportees. Among the figures cited were $1.1 million per person paid to Rwanda for seven deportees, and $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea for 29 people, a sum that exceeded all US aid to that country over the previous eight years.
The same report found that more than 80% of those sent to third countries had since returned to their home nations, often at additional cost to American taxpayers. It also cited instances where deportees who held US court-ordered protections were removed to Ghana and Equatorial Guinea before being transferred onward within days. The State Department disputed the report's characterisation of its enforcement record.
Broader Immigration Enforcement
The Liberia agreement stands out as one of the broadest arrangements of its kind, with the capacity for deportees to include nationals from multiple regions beyond Africa. Legit.ng earlier reported that the United States government has deported more than three million foreigners in 15 months since President Donald Trump returned to office. President Trump signed two Executive Orders on Thursday aimed at tightening the rules around American citizenship, building on a recent Supreme Court decision that narrowed the scope of birthright citizenship.
