US sends 20 deportees to Liberia under deal to accept 1,200 third-country nationals

HARBEL, Liberia (AP) – The United States on Thursday carried out its first deportation under an agreement for Liberia to accept up to 1,200 third country nationals (TCNs), one of the Trump administration's largest efforts yet to deport people to countries other than their own.

The deportees will include nationals from the Caribbean, North America, South America and Africa, according to Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah. Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh has said the TCNs could seek asylum in the West African country if they wished.

The first 20 deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia.

The US State Department declined to answer questions about the Liberia agreement, but said that implementing the Trump administration's immigration policies was a "top priority". It said it was "unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America's border security".

The US Homeland Security Department declined to confirm Thursday's deportations "for operational security reasons" and referred additional questions to the State Department.

Third-country agreements are often shrouded in secrecy. Migrants have been deported to countries they have never been to or where they face safety risks and are left with little choice other than to return to the home countries they were fleeing from.

The Trump administration struck agreements with at least 35 countries to deport people who are from other countries, including Liberia and 13 others in Africa, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a partnership of Refugees International and Human Rights First that relies on public records requests, news reports and other sources.

More than 23,000 people have deported to 26 countries under the agreements.

The US State Department previously announced that Liberia agreed to accept deportees who are not from Liberia. But a six-page agreement reached in September 2025 and posted on its website does not say how many or from which countries.

In October 2025, Liberia offered to accept Kilmar Abrego Garcia of El Salvador, who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador. Blocked from sending him to his native country, the Trump administration has vowed to send him to a third county, including Liberia.

Abrego Garcia has said he would agree to be deported to Costa Rica, which has said it will accept him. But the government has so far declined to send him there. Abrego Garcia is fighting deportation to Liberia in a federal lawsuit in Maryland.

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