Trump Administration’s Mass Deportation Operations: Update April 2026

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security believes that the escalation of hyper-militarized mass deportation operations targeting Black and Brown communities coupled with ongoing threats of national guard deployment from the Trump Administration is evidence of normalization of using military force against civilians and a red flag for the genocidal process underway in the U.S. (See our previous Red Flag Alerts and statements for the U.S.). Cities across the U.S. continue to face armed mass deportation operations as the Trump Administration deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers along with agents from other federal agencies to carry out enforcement operations under the guise of protecting public safety (See March Brief). However, these enforcement operations have resulted in human rights violations committed by the federal agents against noncitizens and citizens alike, including racial profiling, unlawful arrest, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and denial of due process. In an effort to better document the tactics and abuses of federal agents during these state-sanctioned operations, the Lemkin Institute is providing an analysis of key insights and incidents during the month of April 2026.

Mass Deportation Operations

In its budget explanation to Congress, ICE quietly announced this month that it officially aims to deport 1 million immigrants. ICE also stated that it “wants 99,000 deportation beds in use each day this year and next” – a significant increase compared to earlier statements. As Vanessa Cardenas, the Executive Director of the immigrant rights group America’s Voice, explained, “While the administration keeps on using the talking point of the ‘worst of the worst,’ the pressure to fulfill quotas ensures that instead they’re going after many long-established people with deeply rooted lives and families here.” The Trump Administration’s expansion of targets for its mass deportation operations as well as continued reports of the federal government using mass surveillance to support its immigrant crackdown reflects this trend. Additionally, to aid in this planned escalation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking up to $3.5 billion in grants to fund “immigration-related law enforcement programs.” These grants will “fund projects including construction of immigration-detention facilities, purchase of police surveillance equipment, and hiring of law-enforcement personnel.”

“Operation ICE Wall”

Reports showed that the Iowa State Patrol was cooperating with ICE agents to stop commercial truck drivers at interstate weigh stations as part of “Operation ICE Wall.” Iowa State Troopers would issue a citation and direct the drivers to a nearby weigh station where ICE agents would be waiting to arrest and detain noncitizen truck drivers. ICE agents recently arrested two truck drivers from India and Pakistan despite the drivers having valid work authorization and pending applications for asylum.

ICE’s “Birth Tourism Initiative”

According to Reuters, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) ordered ICE agents to focus on a new “Birth Tourism Initiative” intended to “target networks that help pregnant noncitizens give birth in the U.S. so their children can be citizens.” HSI claims this is “advancing efforts to protect the integrity of U.S. immigration and identification systems, specifically targeting fraudulent activities associated with birth tourism schemes.”

Surveillance of Immigrants and U.S. Citizens

In a response to an October inquiry from members of the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, ICE director Tom Lyons admitted that the agency is using “spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages as part of the agency's efforts to disrupt fentanyl traffickers” and “dismantle foreign terrorist organizations.” In particular, the Committee is concerned about ICE’s potential use of the spyware Graphite. Graphite was created by the Israeli company Paragon Solutions, which signed a $2 million contract with the U.S. government at the end of the Biden Administration that was revived by the Trump Administration in the fall of 2025. Graphite uses “zero click” technology that would allow ICE agents to access encrypted messages on a targeted device without needing the user to click on a link. WhatsApp has disclosed in 2025 that users in various countries, including 90 journalists and humanitarian aid workers, have been targeted by Graphite. The House Committee member and Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee stated, “The response I received from ICE makes one thing clear. They are moving forward with invasive spyware technology inside the United States.” It is unclear at this time if ICE would require a judicial warrant to deploy this spyware against civilians or if the agency would continue to use its administrative warrants to justify its use.

ICE is also growing its network of private contractors who use a “mix of data tools, online research, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence to locate people.” The increasing use of AI and the scale of this network of private contractors, who may receive up to 50,000 names of potential ICE targets a month, are allowing ICE to conduct larger and faster sweeps. These private contractors use a method called “skip tracing” or “finding someone using public records, databases, online information, and, sometimes, physical surveillance.” Skip tracing is not new and has long been used by debt collectors, bail bondsmen, etc. However, skip tracing has remained a method employed by private entities and the government increasingly involving private third parties in government surveillance for immigration enforcement raises concerns about privacy and due process. According to the American Immigration Council, ICE skip tracing “involves using government data, online research, and in-person verification” for which ICE is building a nationwide network of private, plainclothes third parties to locate individuals, verify their addresses, and take time-stamped photos of their homes and workplaces.

ICE has already awarded contracts to 13 private companies for skip tracing which would allow the government to target around 1.5 million immigrants. These companies include Bluehawk LLC, SOS International, and Gravitas who have backgrounds in military or intelligence work and have incorporated AI into their work. BI Incorporated is another company contracted by ICE which is a subsidiary of the for-profit prison company GEO Group which already operates immigration detention centers across the country. ICE contracting BI Incorporated would enable GEO Group to profit off of locating individuals that it would eventually detain, allowing the company to profit twice off of a given detainee. Per its contract, ICE grants bonuses to businesses if they verify a person’s location within 7 or 14 business days, leading to private contractors using AI tools and raising concerns for “due process, accuracy, and the ethics of the information and how it is gathered, verified, and reported.”

Additionally, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that Customs and Border Protection asked the city of San Clemente, California to install a surveillance tower as part of its Autonomous Surveillance Tower (AST) program. This would be the “first deployment of an Anduril surveillance tower in a densely populated area not located directly on the US-Mexico border.” While CBP maintains that this is for “maritime surveillance focused on offshore activities,” city officials are concerned that this would lead to surveil entire neighborhoods.

Use of Paramilitary Forces in Immigration Raids

A new investigation by WIRED revealed that “the Trump administration has approved the use of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, also known as BORTAC, to conduct immigration enforcement operations in cities nationwide, marking a shift from its usual duties, which include desert rescues, executing high-risk warrants and even manhunts.” The investigation also indicated that the Trump Administration has also been deploying BORTAC’s sister unit, Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORTSAR). Both BORTAC and BORSTAR units consist of “military veterans and former police officers, some with records involving domestic violence or sexual assault and prior questionable uses of force” and are usually used for “high-risk operations, including conflicts with armed drug cartels and military operations in the Middle East.” These units have been reported as involved in operations in Illinois, California, Minnesota, and Vermont. WIRED found that BORTAC and BORSTAR agents were the most violent of federal agents deployed to Chicago as part of Operation Midway Blitz with 78 incident reports of excessive force connected to these agents. WIRED found that BORTAC AND BORSTAR agents in Chicago were reported “punching and kicking protesters, deploying tear gas, macing civilians, firing pepper balls and 40 mm foam rounds into crowds, using tasers, unleashing dogs on deportation targets and shooting unarmed civilians, killing at least one person.” None of these agents have been held accountable for these incidents. This raises concerns about the increased use of military force against civilians with impunity.

Selected State Incidents and Updates

• Wisconsin: Salah Sarsour, a green card holder of Palestinian descent and the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, was arrested and detained by federal agents on March 30, 2026. 12 vehicles surrounded Sarsour as he stopped at an old warehouse that he owned on the south side of Milwaukee and put him in a van before stating that he was being taken by immigration officers. Community members in support of Sarsour claim that his arrest was a "targeted act of political retaliation designed to chill opposition to the Israeli government and support for the Palestinian people.”

• Maryland: Ever Alvarenga Rios was hospitalized after federal agents rear-ended his vehicle and arrested him on April 4 in Highlandtown, causing “injuries to his head, chest, back and hands.” Attorney Adam Crandell explained, "I think this is probably the most egregious case that I've seen in terms of causing physical bodily injury to the person involved…It's disturbing, to say the least, that this is how ICE appears to be choosing to interact.”

• Connecticut: A Southern Connecticut State University student was arrested by ICE agents off campus. Federal agents arrested a high school senior, Rihan, at Cheshire High School on April 6th. Rihan had come over from Afghanistan legally along with his family in October 2024 and was granted humanitarian parole. His father had served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and the family could not remain safely in the country. ICE agents pulled Rihan over while he was in the car with family members and falsely claimed that his status had expired.

• North Carolina: Two children and their parents in Durham were arrested and detained by federal agents on April 9 and quickly deported to Honduras without due process. The family had been in the process of applying for asylum and were attending their required check-in appointment with immigration officials. Andreina Malki, a representative from the immigrant rights group Siembra NC, stated that “This family was lured into the check-in office under a false pretense of safety and they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours.”

• Florida: While the ICE Miami field office in South Florida has not conducted the number of high profile raids seen in other states and communities across the U.S., its collaboration with local police through 287(g) agreements has allowed federal agents to carry out the highest number of arrests in the U.S. Recent reports demonstrate that between December 2025 and March 2026, ICE carried out around 10,000 arrests compared to 5,000 arrests in Minneapolis during that same period. Florida has the highest number of 287(g) agreements (325) between ICE and local law enforcement – a 577% increase since 2025.

• California: On April 7, ICE agents arrested a person in Anaheim, and on April 8, agents took two people at a strip mall and gas station in Corona and a woman at her immigration check-in in Los Angeles. The man arrested at the strip mall was violently thrown to the ground by agents despite complying with commands. The woman arrested at her immigration check-in was forced into an unmarked vehicle with no plates by two male ICE agents. Also on April 8, ICE agents shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza after claiming that Mendoza attempted to run over an agent. This claim was disproven by dashcam footage that showed Mendoza attempting to drive around the agents. On April 14, federal agents re-arrested and detained Isaac Villegas, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, challenging the use of racial profiling in immigration raids. Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California characterized the arrest as a “shocking act of retaliation.”

• Texas: A U.S. citizen, Brian Morales, was arrested by federal agents an hour outside of San Antonio and deported to Mexico without due process, despite having proof of citizenship. Morales was pulled over by federal agents and arrested during a traffic stop. Morales was in the process of applying for a Real ID and alerted agents that he had his birth certificate and social security card. Agents did not believe Morales and “threatened him with a fraud charge and five years’ imprisonment if he didn’t sign a voluntary departure order.” In El Paso, the wife of an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant, Deisy Rivera Ortega, was arrested at her immigration check-in on April 14 and detained despite complying with immigration requirements. At the time of her arrest, Rivera Ortega had a valid work permit.

• Missouri: New data from the Deportation Data Project revealed that more than 3,200 people had been arrested by ICE in Missouri since January 2025. Arrests have increased in the state due to cooperation with local police who turn over immigrants at traffic stops, police departments, sheriff’s offices, and correctional facilities. More than 60 police departments have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE.

• Louisiana: On April 15, ICE agents detained two people in Hammond. ICE agents followed the targets home after pulling them over. Agents allegedly waited outside of the home for hours until they were granted an official search warrant.

ICE Detention: Deteriorating Conditions and Increasing Deaths

This month, more reports from news outlets and NGOs detail the ongoing inhumane conditions in immigration detention centers (particularly medical neglect) and increasing numbers of deaths in ICE detention. Currently, there are around 60,000 people in immigration detention and 46 people have died in detention since 2025, 18 people in 2026 alone. As deaths in detention continue, ICE has been releasing less information with incident reports being cut to four paragraphs instead of three pages. This raises the concern that incidents aren’t adequately being tracked and investigated. This month, reports emerged detailing the deteriorating conditions of the following detention centers: Camp East Montana, the Otey Mesa Detention Center, the Dilley Processing Center, the North Lake Processing Center, and Adelanto Processing Center.

Camp East Montana, Fort Bliss Military Base, (El Paso, Texas)

Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas opened in August 2025 and is the largest ICE detention center in the U.S. housing a daily average of 2,505 immigrants in large tents. The camp is located in a desert and has the highest number of detainee deaths. Former detainees have characterized the living conditions, food, bathrooms, and treatment of detainees by staff as “horrible.” Detainees are reportedly crammed into large cells and served small portions of food. What little food detainees received has been described as “inedible” and detainees recount having to "ration their food by hiding fruits and crackers under their shirts.” This often led to stomach issues because “nobody wanted to eat.”  Many detainees report camp staff denying medical care despite reports of serious illnesses like “tuberculosis, Covid and measles.” Detainees also describe dust being “everywhere…covering people’s blankets and clogging their airways.” Rain also has frequently leaked in through the tent tarp and soaked mattresses, a situation that is made worse by the fact that the air conditioning is reportedly kept on constantly at near freezing temperatures. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) interviewed 45 detainees and found evidence of “alarming conditions of confinement and repeated instances of coercion, physical force, and threats against immigrants facing third-country deportations, in violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections.” One former detainee remembers seeing a fellow detainee collapse, guards laughing at detainees pleading for help, and even guards “betting on which detainee was going to die by suicide.” In February, ICE inspectors had found 49 violations of their own detention standards at the camp. These violations included ones relating to “use of force and restraints at the tent camp” as well as deficiencies ranging from “medical care to sexual abuse and assault prevention and intervention, facility security and control.”

Otay Mesa Detention Center (San Diego, California)

The Otay Mesa Detention Center, located in San Diego near the U.S.-Mexico border, is a for-profit detention center run by CoreCivic with the capacity of holding 1,500 detainees. Recently, two California lawmakers visited the facility after reports of “overcrowding, poor conditions and sexual assaults.” One of the lawmakers, Congressman Mike Levin “cited a long list of humanitarian concerns about the facility, including medical care, food, access to uninterrupted sleep, family visitation and access to legal counsel.”

Family Detention at Dilley Processing Center (Dilley, Texas)

This month, Human Rights First and RAICES released a joint report outlining the horrific conditions that the more than 5,600 people, including parents, children, toddlers, and newborn babies, faced in detention at the Dilley Processing Center in Dilley, Texas between April 2025 and February 2026. The report found “widespread due process violations, inhumane conditions, and lasting physical and psychological harm inflicted on families incarcerated at Dilley.” Families are routinely detained longer than the 20-day court legal limit without access to legal counsel and information; adequate food, water, hygiene, and medical care; or a meaningful opportunity to seek protection before being deported. The report also revealed that families “are routinely threatened with or subjected to separation to coerce them into abandoning asylum claims.” Senior Director of Refugee Advocacy at Human Rights First, Robyn Barnard, asserted that their “findings make it clear that there is absolutely no rights-respecting or safe way for DHS to incarcerate families and children.”

North Lake Processing Center (Baldwin, Michigan)

Detainees at the North Lake Processing Center operated by the for-profit Geo Group in Baldwin, Michigan have launched a hunger strike to protest “medical neglect, inadequate food, and prolonged detention” at the facility prompting lawmakers and civil rights groups to demand an independent investigation. The ACLU has found evidence of inhumane conditions since the opening of the facility 10 months ago, including “life-threatening delays and denials of care, lack of follow-up care after hospitalization, and denial of prescription drugs or requiring payment in order to receive necessary medications.” Detainees report being detained despite having final removal orders or pending immigration cases and asylum claims and being denied bond without justification. They also describe having “limited access to medical care and inadequate food” and report that “staff constantly belittle them.” “We’re treated like animals,” one detainee describes. The Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan, Loren Khogali, stated that “North Lake's conditions and practices fall dangerously short of both constitutional mandates and federal standards, and we are calling for an immediate independent investigation.”

Adelanto Processing Center (California)

The Adelanto Processing Center is located in the Mojave Desert in California and run by the for-profit Geo Group. One detainee, who has been detained in the facility for nearly 200 days, described lack of “proper food, medical care and regular showers.” “We are prisoners — you know, indefinite prisoners, is what makes it worse, with no end in sight,” he told CBC News. ICE press releases revealed that four detainees have died in the facility and the facility is also subject to a recent lawsuit for inhumane conditions “including mold, insufficient food, lack of proper medical care and "rampant" illness.” The lawsuit also claims staff abuses detainees and pressures them to give up their “statutory and constitutional rights and send a message to other immigrants to 'self-deport.'

Immigration Restrictions and Policy Changes

At the end of March, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that DHS acted unlawfully when it revoked the legal status of over 900,000 immigrants who used the CBP One app and cancelled the appointments of applicants who were waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border. The CBP One app had been used during the Biden Administration to facilitate making appointments with immigration officials at ports of entry and applying for legal status. Now, per Judge Burroughs’ ruling, the Trump Administration must restore the legal status of these applicants.

The Trump Administration continues its extremely restrictive refugee policies while admitting Afrikaners, a white minority group from South Africa. According to the Refugee Processing Center, the U.S. admitted 4,499 refugees since October 2025, all but three being from South Africa. The Trump Administration has explicitly prioritized Afrikaners due to the group allegedly being the victim of “illegal or unjust discrimination” and a “genocide” against white farmers – claims that experts have thoroughly discredited.

To cut down on future asylum cases, the U.S. State Department has issued a new guidance which introduces two new required questions to the application process for non-immigrant temporary visas like student or H1-B visas. Applicants must now answer: “Have you experienced harm or mistreatment in your country of nationality or last habitual residence?” and “Do you fear harm or mistreatment in returning to your country of nationality?” Declining to answer these questions or answering yes to these questions has increased the probability of an applicant’s temporary visa being denied. This considerably narrows the eligibility for temporary visas and also increases the risk of an applicant perjuring or misrepresenting themselves if they apply for asylum in the future.

The Trump Administration is now targeting those who were allowed to legally enter the U.S. and work as part of a legal settlement for families who suffered under the first Trump Administration’s separation at the border. Court records show that at least 25 people with this particular legal status have been detained or deported in recent months despite protections. One Honduran man who was legally working and living in the U.S as part of this legal settlement has been in ICE detention in Louisiana for five months. Under the second Trump Administration, DHS also suddenly told families benefitting from the legal settlement that they had to pay a $1000 fee per person. Those detained by ICE agents were pressured to self-deport as agents claimed that their particular legal status from the settlement and protections didn’t matter.

Additionally, this month, the Trump Administration ended its decades-long $11 million contract with Catholic Charities in Miami, which cares for unaccompanied migrant children, putting these children in a precarious position.

USCIS Slowdowns Making Millions Vulnerable to Deportation

In a recent report, NPR demonstrated that DHS “has taken longer and longer to process applications, meaning an increasing number of people wait months without confirmation that their application was received — let alone reviewed.” This has left millions in “legal limbo,” leaving them vulnerable to the Administration’s mass deportation efforts. According to USCIS data, 12 million applicants applying for “citizenship, a work permit or other permission to live in the U.S.” are still waiting on a decision. 11.6 million pending applications are currently in the USCIS “backlog,” meaning that they have been marked as opened and received and sorted into a specific application category. The USCIS “frontlog” is tracked separately as the number of applications that have been submitted but not actually opened or assigned a category. There are currently 247,974 applications in the USCIS “frontlog.” Much of the slowdown can be attributed to the Administration implementing “screening and vetting processes” that the Biden Administration allegedly overlooked, such as “tougher naturalization tests, social media screenings and visits to applicants' neighborhoods.” The spokesman for USCIS, Matthew Tragesser, stated that these new policies are meant “to ensure applicants demonstrate good moral character and an attachment to the Constitution.” The impact of these new vetting processes has not been the same across the board with some cases moving along quickly while others have to wait months before the government acknowledges it has received their application. Both the “backlog” and “frontlog” have left many who have a pending application more vulnerable to deportation. Immigration attorney Renata Castro explained the difficulties of defending her clients who are in removal proceedings: “We have [immigration] judges pressuring us, private immigration attorneys, to produce a document that the government is not able to produce and threatening our clients with deportation because the government cannot issue a receipt.”

The Trump Administration’s intentional slowdown and elimination of lawful pathways to legal status can also be seen in the downward trend of naturalizations since 2025. NPR analysis of newly released data from USCIS indicates a “drop in people being approved to become citizens.” According to Margy O’Herron, Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, “What we see from this administration, just at a very high level, is an effort to define who is an American…Giving somebody citizenship is granting somebody status as an American. There's an effort to control that.” Nicole Melaku, the Executive Director of the National Partnership for New Americans, also commented, “We are beginning to see the manifestation of data that proves that this administration is slow-walking or even denying the opportunity for these people.”

In the wake of a growing “backlog” and “frontlog” of applications, the Trump Administration is actively looking for cases where a person’s legal status can be revoked with a new “Tactical Operations Division” within USCIS. This new division includes "Denaturalization," "Refugee Re-Vetting," "LPR [Lawful Permanent Resident] Operations," and "Fraud Detection & National Security” teams. The Director of USCIS, Joseph Edlow, stated that the agency is going back and “re-vetting cases for people who were granted green cards and granted other benefits.” It has also been reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has “identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship it wants to revoke” and will soon assign litigators to file denaturalization cases.

Firing of Immigration Judges

The Trump Administration continued to shape the immigration judicial landscape in April by firing 6 more immigration judges who have ruled against the Trump Administration and have previous experience defending immigrants. Two of the recently fired judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, ruled against the Trump Administration to block the deportation of Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two students arrested last year for participating in protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Patel explained that her firing “fit within a broader pattern of the administration dismissing judges near the end of their probationary term, particularly those who have experience representing immigrants in court.” She commented, “I think there’s a broader agenda of trying to reshape the immigration bench to be more reflective of the political agenda of the administration.” Both Patel and Froes were also appointed during the Biden Administration. In response to questions about the recent firings, the Department of Justice (DOJ) maintains that the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) “continually evaluates all immigration judges, regardless of background, on factors such as conduct, impartiality/bias, adherence to the law, productivity/performance, and professionalism.” The DOJ stated, “All judges have a legal, ethical, and professional obligation to be impartial and neutral in adjudicating cases…If a judge violates that obligation by demonstrating a systematic bias in favor of or against either party, EOIR is obligated to take action to preserve the integrity of its system.”

The recent firings bring the number of immigration judges fired under Trump’s second term to over 100, leaving many immigration courts operating with “skeleton crews” or no judge at all. This further diminishes the capacity of a legal system already overwhelmed by the amount of cases due to the Administration’s mass deportation efforts. Patel explained, “It increases the likelihood of people making mistakes when you lose people with experience and training, and then you combine that with increased pressures to resolve more cases faster and faster, and it just creates less room for due process and more room for errors.” In a similar vein, another former immigration judge who was fired in August 2025 commented: “The concept of procedural due process, the idea that you get to have a hearing in the United States…is a bedrock principle of law… Despite that, the Trump administration has done its utmost to erode that principle by firing judges that it perceived [as] being opposed to the administration’s stated goal to deport as many people as possible with the least amount of due process available.” This has sparked a push to make the immigration system an independent judiciary that cannot be influenced by the Administration.

Third Country Deportation

This month, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Paraguay announced “safe third country” agreements with the Trump Administration where they agreed to accept U.S. deportees who are third country nationals. March also saw reports of third country nationals in Eswatini and Uganda who already have standing agreements with the Trump Administration. The Lemkin Institute has previously issued a Red Flag Alert for the Trump Administration’s deportation of noncitizens to third countries not of their nationality and without due process. In these coutries they are at risk of – and many have suffered from – being subjected to severe human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, inhumane conditions, and torture. The Trump Administration, fully aware of the conditions deportees will face, continues to seek agreements with third-countries that will facilitate the further imprisonment of deportees or where instability, distance from the U.S., and deplorable human rights records (particularly regarding their treatment of migrants) provide another avenue of containment.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica announced that it will accept 25 U.S. deportees a week as part of a “non-binding migration agreement” with the Trump Administration. This agreement was signed at the end of March 2026 during a visit from Kristi Noem who was recently reassigned to oversee the “Shield of Americas” and has been travelling through Latin America. Noem commented, “We are very proud to have partners like…Costa Rica, who are working to ensure that people who are in our country illegally have the opportunity to return to their countries of origin.” However, the agreement allows the Trump Administration to continue to use Costa Rica for third country deportations and send deportees who are not citizens of Costa Rica. In fact, government officials have stated that Costa Rica “would only receive deported migrants who do not hail from Latin America or any nation that refuses to take back their citizens.” The Costa Rican government maintains the right to accept or reject proposed transfers from the U.S. and has discretion regarding the number and nationality of the deportees it receives. The government also assures that “deportees will be processed under Costa Rica’s migration laws under a special migratory status and that the country will avoid returning people to countries where they might face the risk of persecution.”

Human rights experts, including Refugees International, have expressed concern over this new agreement and new flights of U.S. detainees to Costa Rica due to the country’s track record with refugee rights. Last year, Costa Rica received 200 U.S. deportees (half of whom were minors), seized their passports, and detained them in Catem, an old factory turned rural detention facility near the Panamanian border. The Costa Rica Supreme Court eventually ordered the group’s release in June 2025 and many deportees were given temporary permits to remain in Costa Rica. Costa Rican Public Security Minister Mario Zamora Cordero claims that the new U.S. deportees will be held in better conditions and that the government will work with the United Nations International Organization for Migration to house deportees while the government works to return them to their home countries. On April 11, Costa Rica received its first flight under the new agreement which included 13 deportees from Asia and Africa and 12 from Honduras and Guatemala. As of April 13, the Costa Rican Human Rights Ombudsman was unable to locate where the U.S. deportees are being held and in what condition. Refugees International is concerned that the deportees were asylum seekers whose cases were not heard in the U.S. or those who immigration judges ruled should not be returned to their countries of origin and that these deportees could face torture or other human right violations if returned.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

This month, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) entered into an agreement with the Trump Administration to accept deportees who are third country nationals. The DRC government assured that U.S. deportees would not be automatically transferred to their country or origin, but that each “situation will be subject to individual review in accordance with the laws of the Republic and national security requirements.” The DRC government also stated that the agreement would be “temporary” and that all logistics costs would be covered by the Trump Administration. The DRC is not a “safe third country” for migrants as it has been embroiled in a conflict with the M23 armed group backed by the Rwandan government, which has occupied parts of the country. M23 has committed war crimes against civilians “including killings. indiscriminate shelling of civilians, sexual violence including gang rapes, and forced displacement.” The Congolese government and its allied “Wazalendo” militias have also committed widespread crimes such as “killing, beating, and extorting civilians.” This agreement comes conveniently as the Trump Administration is brokering a peace deal between the DRC government and M23 to gain access to Congolese mineral resources. Additionally, the ISIS-linked armed group, Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF), which has been active in the DRC, has also attacked civilians.

The first flight of U.S. deportees arrived on April 17 consisting of 15 migrants from Latin America, including Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. According to one of their lawyers, “all 15 deportees are believed to have legal protections from U.S. judges preventing their return to their home countries.” Despite these protections, deportees are reporting being pressured by DRC authorities to return to their home countries regardless of concerns for personal safety.

According to advocacy group AfghanEvac, the Trump Administration also may be considering sending hundreds of Afghan refugees currently at the former U.S. military base Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar to the DRC after halting their resettlement in the U.S. The 1,100 Afghan refugees (including 400 children) were evacuated from Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdrew in 2021 and have been awaiting resettlement after extensive vetting. Given the conditions in the DRC, advocates speculate that this proposed plan serves as a way to put pressure on Afghan refugees to elect to return to Afghanistan “where they potentially face persecution, imprisonment or death” under the Taliban government. Advocates are also concerned that despite these risks, most of these Afghan refugees will be transferred to Afghanistan upon arrival in the DRC.

Other Countries

• Eswatini: On April 9, the Eswatini Supreme Court ruled that four former U.S. detainees who had been sent to Eswatini in July 2025 and detained in a maximum security prison have the right to see a lawyer after being denied legal counsel for nine months while in detention. One of the detainees’ lawyers commented, “The fact that it took nearly nine months of litigation and a decision by the highest court of the land to obtain something as innocuous as permission for my clients to meet with a local lawyer speaks volumes about how hard the government of Eswatini is fighting to deny these men the most basic of rights.” This in addition to overcrowding and inhumane conditions in detention centers and reports of “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government” continues to present concerns that the Trump Administration continues to use Eswatini for third country deportation.

• Uganda: On April 1st, 8 U.S. deportees who were not Ugandan citizens were sent to Uganda. According to the Ugandan Law Society and the East Africa Law Society, these deportees were sent to Uganda without the U.S. government coordinating with relevant government departments in the country like the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control. Essentially the deportees were “dumped” in the country without any formal documentation. The Trump Administration and the Ugandan government do have a standing “Safe Third Country” agreement that was signed in July 2025 where Uganda agreed to receive third country nationals and to not send migrants back their home country if they may face “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” However, Uganda is not a “safe third country” for asylum seekers. Members of the LGBTQ community, women, political activists, those critical of the Ugandan government could face further human rights violations if sent to the country.

• Paraguay: Paraguay has announced that it will receive an initial group of 25 Spanish-speaking third country nationals from the U.S. as part of a new agreement with the Trump Administration.

Analysis

Reports from this month continue to provide evidence for a genocidal process targeting Black and Brown communities unfolding in the U.S. The Trump Administration continues to sanction militarized violence against and the unlawful arrest and detention of Black and Brown people based on racial profiling and perceived “criminality.” The conduct of federal agents demonstrates that Black and Brown people are systematically denied due process and will be arrested despite having lawful status, proper documentation, or compliance with required immigration obligations. The state-sanctioned targeting of Black and Brown communities continues to expand with increased budgets and quotas, new operations such as “Operation ICE Wall” and ICE’s “Birth Tourism Initiative,” and increased surveillance of the civilians in the U.S. to quickly locate more individuals. State and local collaboration through 287(g) agreements with ICE have also led to an increase in ICE capacity to target these communities.

Reports continue to outline the deteriorating conditions in the ever expanding system of ICE detention centers which are resulting in more and more deaths. The Trump Administration’s gutting and reshaping of immigration courts and procedures is keeping Black and Brown people in detention in these inhumane conditions without the possibility of bond or effectively challenging their detention or deportation. In this way, the network of immigration detention centers are effectively a network of domestic concentration camps. The Trump Administration’s elimination of pathways to legal status, complete disregard of protections afforded to applicants and those with legal status, and intentional slowdown of application processes only serves to increase the number of those vulnerable to ICE’s dragnet and the possibility that they will be unlawfully arrested, detained, and deported. Once deported, Black and Brown people are sent to a growing network of third countries who have entered into agreements with the U.S. where they are at risk for further human rights abuses. The Trump Administration is aware that these countries are not truly safe third countries and continue to seek out agreements with these countries which will guarantee the further containment of deportees either through sheer distance, circumstance or actual continued incarceration.

The Trump Administration has built a muti-level system of agents on the ground; detention centers; immigration courts, policy, and procedure; and third country networks to remove Black and Brown people who the Administration has deemed to be a threat. This genocidal system must be dismantled and the Trump Administration and its agents must be investigated and held accountable.

The Lemkin Institute continues to call for the dismantling of DHS, ICE, and CBP as well as the expanding network of immigration detention centers and third countries for their role in carrying out mass human rights abuses which could amount to crimes against humanity and an unfolding genocidal process. States must take measures to keep their communities safe and not collaborate with mass deportation operations. This includes state and local law enforcement not collaborating with federal agents through 287(g) agreements. Given the way in which the Trump Administration has gutted and shaped the immigration legal landscape to support their mass deportation efforts, the Lemkin Institute supports efforts converting the immigration court system into an independent judiciary. Other countries which receive U.S. deportees who are third country nationals must not be complicit in the genocidal process and respect their human rights obligations. Given the widespread impact both domestically and internationally, there needs to be a concerted international effort to hold the U.S. government, its agents, and complicit third countries perpetuating human rights abuses accountable.

As long as we’re able, the Lemkin Institute will continue to monitor the genocidal process unfolding in the U.S. The Institute wants to stress that while we do our best to document incidents of state-sanctioned human rights violations committed by federal agents, we are only able to access information that is publicly available. The select incidents we are able to highlight are not exhaustive and the extent of these mass deportation operations and human rights violations is most likely underreported by open sources. Documentation of these incidents is key. We encourage those who are able to safely do so to document and report incidents to local grassroots community defense organizations monitoring ICE activity in your area.

Resources

• Ice in My Area Tracker: Report and track ICE activity in your area 

• Immigration Policy Tracking Project: Stay up to date on rapidly changing immigration policies  

• National Immigration Legal Services Directory: Search for immigration services near you

• National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: Offers information to connect people to legal and community resources and currently lists national, state, and local immigration hotlines

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center : Provides information and currently lists California Rapid Response Networks to report ICE activity

• National Immigration Law Center: Provides information and resources on immigration policy

• American Civil Liberties Union: Stay up to date on changing immigration policies and ongoing litigation

• Immigrant Defense Project: Offers information on community defense and ICE tactics as well as a hotline to connect people with further resources and provide legal advice

• American Immigration Council: Provides breakdowns of immigration law and changing policy

• National Immigrant Justice Center: Provides legal resources and general information on current issues

• Third Country Deportation Watch: Provides information on third country deportations and countries who have entered into agreements with the U.S.

• ICE Flight Monitor: Human Rights First tracks and documents U.S. deportation flights