Liberia receives first group of “third country” deportees from U.S., officials say

The West African nation of Liberia received the first group of “third country” deportees from the U.S. on Thursday, including migrants from Latin America, U.S. officials told CBS News. 

Roughly 20 deportees from different countries landed in Liberia, after being deported from the U.S.

A U.S. official, however, told CBS News that after the plane carrying the deportees arrived in Liberia, a small group of them resisted and refused to deplane.

They were escorted off the plane, but then returned to it, the official said. Their whereabouts are unknown. 

Liberia is the latest country to accept deportees who are not its citizens as part of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and an aggressive White House effort to deport migrants to so-called third countries where they have no ties.

The government of Liberia has said it intends to accept up to 1,200 third country deportees from the U.S. over the next year, and that the new arrivals will be allowed to apply for asylum there.

Liberia is also where the Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador last year and then returned to the U.S. to be prosecuted on human smuggling charges. That effort has been blocked for now by a federal judge in Maryland.

The Trump administration has brokered third country deportation agreements with dozens of nations across the globe, including African countries plagued by armed conflict, political tumult and human rights abuses, including South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

U.S. immigration officials have also sent regular deportation flights to Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and other African countries that have agreed to receive deportees from other nations.

Human rights activists have denounced the third country deportations as inhumane and illegal under international law, saying some countries are returning deportees to places they fled because of persecution.

But the Trump administration has defended the legality and merits of the deportations, portraying them as an effective way to deter illegal immigration.

For the most part, the administration’s third country deportation effort has focused on migrants whose home countries limit or reject U.S. deportations or who’ve won legal protections from being sent back to their homelands.