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First flight to Liberia
The United States carried out its first deportation under an agreement for Liberia to accept up to 1,200 people who are not from the African country, with the first group of 20 arriving at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia on Thursday.
“The United States on Thursday carried out its first deportation under an agreement for Liberia to accept up to 1,200”
Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told Reuters that the 1,200 deportees will include African nationals as well as nationals from Latin American countries, saying, "most of the people are from Latin American countries. Some from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and others."
Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said deportees could seek asylum in Liberia, while Liberia’s government said the arrivals were "free to depart the country when they so desire" or apply for asylum.
The Reuters report said the plane arrived in Monrovia at 12:45 local time after taking off from Louisiana and stopping in Dakar, Senegal, and that the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency would help provide services.
Asylum options and secrecy
Liberia said the deportees would be received "as guests" who could leave when they wanted and who could apply for asylum in Liberia, while the U.S. State Department declined to provide details of the Liberia agreement.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Liberia’s justice minister, Natu Oswald Tweh, told the Guardian that the majority of the deportees had committed migration-related violations and offenses, and that they could seek asylum in the west African country if they wished.
The Guardian also reported that under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, and that advocates said about 10 of them are in Africa.
Reuters reported that the U.S. State Department declined to provide details of the agreement with Liberia but said implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies remained a “top priority,” while the U.S. Homeland Security Department declined to confirm Thursday’s deportations “for operational security reasons.”
Backlash and legal fight
The New York Times reported that five of the 20 U.S. deportees who arrived in Liberia on Thursday refused to deplane and were restrained for several minutes by American federal agents, with the Liberian government not clarifying their status.
“Five of the 20 U.S. deportees who arrived in Liberia on Thursday”
Reuters said Liberia’s agreement to accept up to 1,200 deportees makes it one of the largest on the African continent, and it also described the U.S. awarding Liberia $5 million this year for "migration management activities."
The Associated Press reported that a six-page agreement reached in September 2025 and posted on its website does not say how many or from which countries, and that a federal lawsuit in Maryland involves Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador.
In the Reuters account, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said, "The government has appealed that order, but the order remains in place while the appeal is pending, and we are confident that we will prevail on the appeal," as the U.S. sought to send Abrego Garcia to a third country including Liberia.