After the Trump administration was given the go-ahead to move forward with third-country deportations, for now, Costa Rica announced last week that it would accept 25 deportees per week under a proposed plan.
The U.S. and Costa Rica signed an initial agreement for Costa Rica to accept illegal migrants ordered deported by the U.S., but, for whatever reason, cannot be sent back to their country of origin.
The U.S. “will put forth the necessary financial support,” Costa Rica’s presidency said in a statement, while the U.N.-tied International Organization for Migration will offer food and housing, Reuters reported.
The Central American nation joins other countries across Africa and the Americas that have agreed to accept deportees from other countries, deemed third-country deportations.
The Trump administration has sought ways to remove illegal immigrants who have applied for asylum in the United States and claimed it is not safe for them to return to their home country.
In other cases, some countries refuse to accept or delay taking back their citizens who are ordered deported. Some countries frequently identified include Cuba, Venezuela, China, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Nigeria and Somalia.
The ongoing saga of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia is one of the most notable cases that has been held up in court for over a year.
The Salvadoran national, dubbed a “Maryland dad” by politicians and mainstream media, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 despite an immigration judge previously ruling he could not be deported to his home country for fear of gang retaliation. He later received an immigration protection called withholding of removal.
Trump’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been hit with continual legal battles in an effort to deport him to third country. Last week, a federal judge blocked the government’s stated plans to swiftly remove him to the West African nation of Liberia, Fox News Digital reported.
Like most everything the Trump administration tries to do when it comes to mass deportations, the policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” has come under fire and been delayed by court battles.
In February, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts ruled the administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” to which they have no ties is unlawful and unlawful and violates due process protections under the U.S. Constitution.
Immigration activists filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of migrants facing deportation to countries not previously named in their removal orders or identified in their immigration court proceedings.
Murphy ruled that the Trump administration must first try to deport the migrants to their home country, or to a country of removal previously designated by an immigration judge.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court has intervened in Murphy’s attempts to block the Trump policy allowing for third‑country deportations twice before and ruled in the administration’s favor last year.
The high court overruled Murphy’s previous decision and cleared the way for a flight carrying several migrants to complete its trip to war-torn South Sudan.
In March, a federal appeals court lifted Murphy’s order that blocked third-country deportations while the government pursues an appeal, Reuters reported.
Additionally, in the case of many alleged gangbangers and criminals with deportation orders, immigration judges previously ruled they could be deported to third countries—an order it seems the previous administration never pursued.
In fact, the Biden administration took steps to prevent the deportation of certain individuals from El Salvador through the Deferral of Removal under the Convention Against Torture protection, and ruled that those with Temporary Protected Status could not be sent back during the designated period. In one of its final actions on immigration policy, Biden’s DHS extended TPS for 200,000 Salvadorans in January 2025, PBS reported.
Countries who have agreed to receive third-party migrants include South Sudan, Honduras, Rwanda, Guyana, and several Caribbean islands like Dominica and St. Kitts and Nevis, the Associated Press reported.
The U.S.’s deal with Costa Rica was announced last week during a visit by U.S. special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas” Kristi Noem to Costa Rica.
“Costa Rica is prepared to see this flow of people,” said Costa Rican Public Security Minister Mario Zamora Cordero in a video statement on Thursday.
The Costa Rican government described the deal as a “non-binding migration agreement” with the U.S. The pact authorizes the transfer of foreign nationals who are not Costa Rican citizens to the Central American country but also allows the country to accept or reject transfers.
The deported migrants will be processed under Costa Rica’s migration laws under special migratory status. Costa Rica also pledged to avoid returning people to countries where they might face persecution.
Despite allegations and lawsuits over human rights abuses in Cost Rica, Zamora Cordero said that the deportees would be held in better conditions.
Cordero said the government will work with the U.S. to return migrants back to their countries. Officials also will work with the U.N. International Organization for Migration to house the deportees in Costa Rica.
“We are very proud to have partners like President (Rodrigo Chaves) and 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,” Noem said of the agreement during her visit.
