Trump turns to Liberia for Venezuelan and Cuban deportees under $5 million migration programme

The first group of 20 deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia on Thursday.

Liberia has agreed to accept as many as 1,200 people over the next 12 months, making the arrangement one of the largest third-country deportation programmes secured by President Donald Trump’s administration in Africa.

Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told Reuters⁠ that most of those transferred would come from Latin America. He identified Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia among the countries expected to account for the deportees.

The United States will provide Liberia with $5 million to manage the programme and strengthen its migration system.

Liberian officials insist the money is intended for migration management and does not amount to payment in exchange for receiving deportees.

First 20 deportees arrive in Liberia

The first arrivals are part of a wider group that will include citizens of African countries, North and South America and the Caribbean.

Liberia has not published the names or nationalities of the 20 people who arrived on Thursday. It has also not disclosed where they will be accommodated or how long the government expects to support them.

Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said the people selected for transfer had been screened before their arrival.

Officials initially provided conflicting descriptions of their records. While some reports quoted the government as saying none had criminal records or faced prosecution, Tweh said most had committed immigration-related violations and offences.

An immigration violation does not necessarily amount to a violent or serious criminal offence.

Liberia says those received under the programme will be treated as guests rather than prisoners. They will be allowed to apply for asylum, remain temporarily or leave Liberia when they wish.

The government has not explained how people without Liberian travel documents, local income or established ties elsewhere would finance their departure.

An agreement dating back to 2025

Liberian officials said the arrangement is based on diplomatic notes exchanged between Monrovia and Washington on 4 and 10 September 2025.

That timeline adds context to an earlier government denial.

On 30 June 2025, Liberia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denied⁠ that the government was discussing or negotiating an agreement to receive non-Liberian deportees from the United States.

The ministry said at the time that Liberia had not entered any formal or informal arrangement obligating it to accept third-country nationals.

Diplomatic notes underpinning the current programme were exchanged about two months after that denial, indicating that the government’s position later changed.

Officials have presented the decision as humanitarian and linked it to Liberia’s history of offering refuge to people fleeing persecution and conflict.

Liberia was established in the 19th century as a settlement for formerly enslaved Black people from the United States. The two countries have maintained close diplomatic and historical ties since then.

Why Trump is using third countries

The arrangement is part of the Trump administration’s effort to accelerate the removal of migrants from the United States.

Third-country deportation allows Washington to send people to countries other than their countries of citizenship.

The strategy is particularly significant in cases where US immigration courts have barred authorities from returning people to their home countries because they could face persecution, torture or other abuse.

The US government has maintained that third-country deportations are legal. Immigration lawyers and human rights groups argue that the arrangements are often opaque and may allow Washington to bypass legal protections against sending migrants into danger.

It has not been established whether any of the first 20 people sent to Liberia had court orders protecting them from removal to their countries of origin.

Liberia says it retains the right to screen proposed deportees and reject anyone it considers unsuitable.

Africa’s expanding role in Trump’s deportation policy

Liberia joins a growing number of African countries involved in Washington’s third-country deportation strategy.

The Trump administration has reached or pursued arrangements with countries including Ghana, Eswatini, South Sudan, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The conditions differ from one country to another. Some deportees have been held in detention after arrival, while others have later been returned to their countries of citizenship.

Liberia’s ceiling of 1,200 people is significantly higher than the numbers publicly associated with several earlier African arrangements.

The programme also comes amid questions about what African governments receive in return for accepting people with no citizenship or established connection to their countries.

Liberian officials deny that the agreement is a direct exchange. However, the $5 million in US assistance means Washington will finance at least part of the reception, accommodation and migration-management costs associated with the programme.

At the maximum capacity of 1,200 people, the funding is equivalent to about $4,167 per person. That calculation does not mean each deportee will receive the money, as it is intended for programme administration and migration infrastructure.

The Abrego Garcia controversy

Liberia has also emerged in the high-profile legal case involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whom the Trump administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador in 2025 despite a court order protecting him from removal there.

He was later returned to the United States but faced the possibility of being deported to Liberia.

A US federal court has halted that removal while his legal challenge proceeds.

His case illustrates the controversy surrounding third-country deportations. Migrants may be sent to countries where they have never lived, even when another country is willing to receive them or they have pending claims before US courts.

For Liberia, the arrival of the first 20 deportees moves the arrangement from a diplomatic agreement into an active migration programme.

It also places the country at the centre of Trump’s expanding effort to make African states destinations for migrants whom the United States cannot easily return home.