Kenis Adalberto López says he was hit twice in the chest with pepper-ball projectiles before being forced onto a deportation flight bound for a country he had never set foot in. The 44-year-old Nicaraguan says he pleaded with agents as they moved to restrain him, telling them, “I'd rather die here than in Africa.” He and 42 others were flown to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on Aug. 29, joining a fast-growing U.S. deportation program that has sent asylum seekers and other migrants to countries where they have no ties.
López's account, along with those of other migrants aboard the same flight, was documented by the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the plane also carried migrants from Iran, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and made stops in two other African countries before reaching Bangui. López says he was restrained for roughly 24 hours during the journey, and according to witnesses cited in the report, two men who resisted boarding were kept in full-body restraint suits for much of the flight while all deportees were shackled at the ankles and wrists while airborne. Per interviews with three men, an immigration agent fired pepper balls at those resisting deportation.
Human rights lawyers said many of the deportees had no criminal records, and the Los Angeles Times reported that some had previously been granted protection barring their return to home countries because they faced possible torture there. One of them, 38-year-old Nicaraguan migrant Luis Hernández, marched in Nicaragua's 2018 pro-democracy protests and was later denied political asylum by a U.S. immigration judge — but that same judge granted him protection from deportation under the international Convention Against Torture. Hernández was detained at a routine immigration check-in in February and was taken to a Texas tarmac on Aug. 28, where he says he was struck twice in the back and once in the knee with pepper-spray canisters. He says he was never notified he would be sent to Africa.
Days Without Food or Sleep in Bangui
Hernández told the Los Angeles Times he went days without eating or sleeping after arriving in Bangui. His lawyer was Lindsay Toczylowski. Savi Arvey said the Trump administration is placing protected refugees directly in harm's way, according to the same Los Angeles Times report.
Deportees who landed in Bangui were given yellow-fever vaccinations and taken to a housing complex where armed guards monitor them around the clock, the Los Angeles Times reported. The city is contending with a cholera outbreak, water shortages and power outages, and the U.S. government itself warns Americans against visiting the Central African Republic because of unrest, crime, kidnapping, landmines, health issues and terrorism. The country remains one of the world's poorest, with an ongoing civil war between Muslim and Christian rebels that has claimed tens of thousands of lives over 15 years; international experts have also denounced President Faustin-Archange Touadera's repression of political opposition and his push to eliminate term limits, even as his government agreed to accept the U.S. deportees. Sango and French are the country's primary languages, leaving many new arrivals unable to communicate.
According to human rights groups cited by the Los Angeles Times, three flights carrying U.S. deportees have landed in the Central African Republic since June. Separate reporting has offered varying passenger counts for individual flights: EL PAÍS reported that a flight arriving Aug. 1 carried roughly 80 migrants on a journey of about 22 hours with layovers in Senegal and Nigeria, while The American Prospect described a July 31 ICE flight carrying an estimated 71 people as the largest known third-country removal flight to Africa. Those figures have not been confirmed to represent the same flight as López's Aug. 29 removal.
Missing Documents, No Way to Leave
U.S. immigration agents confiscated identity documents from many deportees, and without them returned, many cannot leave the Central African Republic, the Los Angeles Times reported. NBC 6 South Florida found a similar pattern among migrants it interviewed, several of whom said they lacked passports, identity documents or legal status and had been pursuing immigration cases in the United States, with no criminal records, when they were removed. CBS News interviewed Yasmani Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban migrant. Moreno de Armas told CBS News he only learned he was being deported to Africa after he landed there in late July, saying, “We cannot leave, we don't have documents and we're suffering and missing our families.” The Los Angeles Times separately reported that Moreno de Armas was kidnapped on a Bangui street by armed men he believed were police officers, and that he and another detainee paid the equivalent of $100 to secure their release.
The Central African Republic's government agreed in June to accept migrants deported by the United States regardless of their home country, according to two sources cited by Reuters, which reported the arrangement was discussed at a May 18 meeting in Bangui involving a U.S. State Department delegation. The International Organization for Migration said it would help assist deportees once they arrived, Reuters reported. Days later, Reuters reported that hundreds of migrants could ultimately be sent to the country under the deal, including planned removals of Iranian nationals.
A Rapidly Expanding Global Network
CBS News reported that the Trump administration has now persuaded more than 30 countries to accept third-country deportees. The administration has made arrangements with at least 35 countries, including several in Africa. Overall program totals vary: the Los Angeles Times put the number expelled under the program at more than 25,000, while another estimate was above 23,000.
The Guardian reported that on Aug. 20, four Cubans, a Brazilian and a Cameroonian refused to disembark from a U.S. deportation flight in Monrovia, Liberia, and were instead flown onward to Equatorial Guinea. The United States agreed to pay Equatorial Guinea $7.5 million under its own third-country deportation deal. NBC 6 South Florida reported that Third Country Deportation Watch found Mexico has received the largest number of migrants deported under third-country arrangements, followed by Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras.
A federal appeals court ordered a pause in the third-country deportation program, ruling that the government had failed to give migrants a meaningful opportunity to challenge their removal destinations. The Trump administration has vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court. Todd Blanche has described the program as an entirely legal and invaluable tool to stem illegal immigration, and the administration has said its enforcement operations comply with federal law and that detainees are treated humanely.
