🔴 #DeportationProject, chapter 1 

Inside the Trump's administration secret deals to expel people worldwide

The situation facing the press in the United States is unprecedented. Just days ago, journalists at CNN, MS Now and Politico were threatened with losing their access to the White House.

Reporters investigating the Trump administration, particularly ICE detentions, as well as deportations of individuals to so-called third countries under secret agreements negotiated with at least 35 countries, have also faced pressure and intimidation. Yet these threats do not stop at the US border. In Cameroon, journalists on assignment for AP were detained while documenting that same story and trying to answer the question: what happens to people after they are expelled, once they land in a country where they have no ties?

That is why we had to launch The Deportation Project. At Forbidden Stories, we pursue the investigations of journalists who are killed, threatened or imprisoned, so that the stories they were working on do not disappear with them.

Credit: Mélody Da Fonseca / Forbidden Stories

For this global investigation, we joined forces with 72 journalists from 26 news organizations. It took us six months  and more than 100 interviews with people deported through the third-country removal system, their families, lawyers, experts and officials. Working across borders allowed us to trace the system from these deals made by the Trump administration to the countries receiving deportees. Our interactive map shows the scale of this system: the countries involved, the routes people have been sent along and the agreements that make these deportations possible. 

Our findings come at a moment when the legality of these deportations is itself being challenged in court.  

On September 18 2026, a US federal appeals court ruled to halt these removals, arguing that they violated due process. The decision stated that migrants weren't given notice sufficiently in advance that they'd be removed, denying them a chance to contest the decision.    

The administration is likely to appeal this decision before the Supreme Court, according to legal experts. For now, however, third country deportations should be on hold. “This is a major victory,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, who was among the team of attorneys who brought the class-action case. “The third country deportations that have occurred were illegal,” she added.

James Percival, General Counsel to the Department of Homeland Security claimed on X on Sunday, September 20, that the ruling was “not currently in effect,” however, “If you claim fear in your home country, DHS has the right to send you elsewhere,” he wrote.  

Stay tuned. We’ll release more findings throughout the week. 

• The Office of Remigration, a new division within the U.S Department of State, plays a central role in this system. It has been instrumental in negotiating third country nationals agreements with third countries and in managing the associated payments.

• Internal documents obtained by the consortium reveal that the Trump administration has planned to spend at least $410 million to facilitate agreements, with funds directed to foreign governments and international organizations, including through programs involving The International Organization for Migration, the UN Refugee Agency (IOM) and the UNHCR.

• The Trump administration has completed agreements with 35 countries regarding receiving third-country nationals, and so far 28 have received third-country nationals according to the consortium’s findings.

• The investigation identified at least 105 flights transferring third-country nationals.

The office of Remigration: "America First" and its overseas negotiations
Iranians in Panama, Laotians in Eswatini, Venezuelans in Liberia. Since President Donald Trump took office in 2025, his administration has signed bilateral agreements with 35 countries to deport to them people who aren’t originally from there. Some 25,000 people have since been removed to countries they have no ties to. But the mechanics of third country removals are couched in layers of administrative, diplomatic, and financial secrecy. Read more.

"Let the whole world know": In Cameroon, investigating from the United States can lead to detention
On Feb. 17, 2026, four Cameroonian journalists were detained in Yaoundé for entering a center secretly holding deportees from the United States. After a six-month investigation, Forbidden Stories is publishing the testimonies of two women the journalists interviewed before being arrested, along with details of a secret immigration agreement between Washington and Yaoundé. Read more.

Check out our interactive map
Between 2025 and August 2026, the Trump administration deported over 25,000 people to countries other than their country of origin. Very few of these removals were publicly announced by the US. The Deportation Project tracked them, and depicted them in this map.

Credits: Evident Media, Icetracking.org, Forbidden Stories, FRANCE 24, Berkeley Human Rights Center Investigations Lab · Data credits: Ice Flight Monitor, Third-Country Deportation Watch   

Media partners: France 24, La Croix, Radio France Internationale, Arte (France); Paper Trail Media, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, ZDF (Germany); Der Standard (Austria); The Washington Post, Human Rights Center Investigations Lab, CCIJ, Frontline-PBS, Evident Media, Investigating Reporting Program at UC Berkeley (United States); The Guardian (United Kingdom); Divergentes (Costa Rica & Nicaragua); Inhlase Centre for Investigative Journalism (Eswatini); Revista Factum (El Salvador); MFWA/ The Fourth Estate (Ghana); Opinion-info.cd (DRC); Plaza Pública (Guatemala); Contracorriente (Honduras); Proceso (Mexico); Number One Citizen Daily (South Sudan).

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For every journalist silenced, Forbidden Stories steps in. This is our mission: to continue the work of journalists who have been killed, imprisoned, or threatened. Because without journalism, there is no information. And without information, there is no democracy. Help us continue the work of threatened journalists wherever they are:

All our investigations are available online