Trump wants to keep deporting migrants to ‘third’ countries. Is it safe?

Deporting immigrants to dozens of third countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, has become a common and controversial practice under President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts in cases where immigrants won limited protections in U.S. immigration courts that prevent ICE from deporting them to their home countries, or in cases where their home countries refuse to accept them.

Deporting immigrants to third countries has become an "essential tool" for removing certain immigrants, "including some of the worst criminal aliens," U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in an emergency request filed Sept. 24.

The court filing asks the Supreme Court to temporarily block a lower-court ruling that bars the government from deporting immigrants to third countries without first giving them notice and a chance to challenge their deportation to a third country.

Sauer argued the government should be allowed to restart the policy immediately because prolonged delays could compound logistical issues that have already forced the Department of Homeland Security to cancel a flight to three countries with 70 criminal aliens, and to pull nearly 150 immigrants from removal flights to four different countries.

Meanwhile, immigrants who have committed serious crimes, including murder and rape, will be allowed to remain and, due to detention constraints, could be released "to the peril of law-abiding Americans," Sauer wrote.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide Sept. 28 whether to grant the Trump administration's request to resume deportations to third countries.

Some third countries known for human-rights abuses

The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to third countries under the policy, and thousands more are eligible, Sauer wrote. Under the policy, the United States deports immigrants to third countries that agree to accept them and meet certain conditions, including assuring the Department of Homeland Security that the immigrants will not be persecuted or tortured.

Some of the immigrants being deported to third countries are flown on deportation flights that originate at ICE's Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center based at the Mesa Gateway Airport east of Phoenix.

The policy has been challenged in the courts by an immigrant-rights group on behalf of immigrants slated for deportation to third countries. The immigrants argue the government can't lawfully deport them to a third country without notifying them first and then giving them a chance to apply not to be deported to a third country.

The policy has drawn criticism from immigrant advocates and some Democrats who say it puts vulnerable people at risk of harm because the United States is deporting immigrants to countries that include some with repressive governments, extreme poverty and track records of human-rights abuses.

The Trump administration has made agreements with the governments of more than 30 countries to accept deportees who are from other countries, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, tracker.

An example is Ahmed Soliman, a 30-year-old Phoenix resident who reportedly was beaten by police Sept. 11 after he was deported in April to Equatorial Guinea instead of Egypt, where he is from originally, U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, said.

A judge determined Soliman could face torture or death if returned to Egypt because he is gay, so the Trump administration deported him instead to Equatorial Guinea, Grijalva said, citing reporting by the Arizona Daily Star and other media outlets.

Soliman lived in the United States most of his life, the Daily Star reported.

"We are very concerned with the fact that we have so many people that are being released to third-party countries that they have no connection to it all and especially in this case a country that has known human rights abuses," Grijalva said in an interview.

Amnesty International believes Soliman and another man, Samson Birhane, an immigrant from Eritrea also deported to Equatorial Guinea, were arrested and beaten by police as "a reprisal for reporting the appalling treatment and threats they are receiving at the hands of the authorities of Equatorial Guinea."

Equatorial Guinea authorities accused Soliman and Birhane of breaking a mirror at a hotel in Malabo, the capital, where they were being held following their deportation from the U.S., according to Amnesty International.

"Police officers covered the two men's heads with a bag and beat them in their heads, backs and ribs," Amnesty International said on its website.

The hotel is used as a makeshift prison to hold deportees from the United States, according to the New York Times, which posted a video obtained from a deportee showing police pointing a gun at a man while another man who appears to be Soliman falls to his knees with his hands raised.

Grijalva and Amnesty International called on Equatorial Guinea authorities to release Soliman.

Soliman's case highlights the danger of deporting people who've spent most of their life in the United States to countries where they have no connections, cut off from their attorneys, and cut off from communication with "anybody who can help them or identify where they are," Grijalva said.

"The U.S. just washes their hands of them, like they're not our responsibility and I disagree with that," Grijalva said.

A 'serial criminal alien' with an 'extensive criminal history'?

Soliman had no criminal record, Grijalva said.

However, an ICE spokesperson called him a "serial criminal alien" with an "extensive criminal history."

ICE arrested Soliman on Oct. 17, 2025, and his criminal history includes aggravated assault of a police officer, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shoplifting, drug possession, synthetic narcotic possession, prescription drug possession, drug paraphernalia, and tampering with evidence, Fernando X. Burgos of ICE said in a written statement.

Soliman entered the United States legally but lost his status after being issued a final order of removal on Oct. 22, 2025, Burgos said.

Soliman received due process, Burgos said, and was removed from the United States on April 28, 2026.

"Under President Trump and (Homeland Security) Secretary (MarkWayne) Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States,” Burgos said.

In a separate statement, the Department of Homeland Security said all immigrants are deported to "a safe third country."

The government "is applying the law as written. All illegal aliens receive due process. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period. The Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised," the statement said.

The Trump administration has made agreements with the governments of more than 30 countries to accept deportees who are from other countries, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, tracker.

The Trump administration has authorized or pledged at least $410 million to facilitate agreements with 31 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, as of the end of June, according to a Sept. 21 report by the Washington Post, citing internal government records it reviewed.