A unanimous three-judge appeals panel ruled the policy unlawful on Friday, Sept. 18; the government has 90 days to appeal and is expected to.
The deals. A 24-newsroom investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories, drawing on internal records and more than 100 interviews, found the Trump administration has signed 35 agreements with foreign governments to take in deported migrants and asylum seekers who are not their citizens. At least $410 million has been pledged to secure those deals, per internal records reviewed by the Washington Post. ([TS]That's the Post's end-of-June figure for 31 countries; the Guardian counts 35 deals now, so it's a floor.) Almost a third of the receiving countries are in Africa.
Who runs it. The effort is led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and run out of a newly created Office of Remigration inside the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
The people moved. Of the more than 25,000 people removed since 2025, about 20,000 were bussed to Mexico, per a Refugees International count. Lawyers say the deals work around the legal bar on sending people back to countries where they face persecution — though receiving countries frequently deport them onward anyway.
"They never told me they were going to deport me [to] this country. I don't know anything about Africa."Nika, a deportee, to the Guardian
Where it stands. A federal appeals court ruled Friday, Sept. 18 that the removals violated due process. The administration has 90 days to appeal and is expected to.
What the $7.5 million payments bought in three countries
- Rwanda: $7.5 million, with seven people received as of January 2026
- Palau: $7.5 million, with no one received as of January 2026
- Equatorial Guinea: $7.5 million, more than the previous eight years of U.S. aid to the country combined