US ICE sends Venezuelan and other migrants on charter flight to Liberia amid controversial third-country deportations

ICE transferred a cohort of about 20 migrants, among them Venezuelan C., from a detention center in Louisiana to Liberia on a charter flight that departed on August 19. Upon arrival in Monrovia, six individuals declined to leave the aircraft and were instead sent to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The others were taken to a hotel in the coastal town of Marshall, where they have been housed for more than a week with no indication of when they might move onward.

This operation is the first wave of an agreement between the United States and Liberia that will eventually accommodate nearly 1,200 deportees over a year, part of a larger U.S. effort that has relocated over 23,000 people to 26 nations since early 2025, according to Human Rights First and Refugees International. NGOs highlight that many of those expelled hold forms of protection, such as withholding of removal, which are meant to prevent return to countries where they face persecution, yet they are being sent to states with limited capacity to process asylum claims. The Liberian government has said deportees are free to travel, apply for asylum, or leave the country, while some deportees report psychological distress and uncertainty about their future.