Exiled by Design: How Trump’s Deportation Machine Went Global
From South Sudan to CECOT, from toddlers to legal residents, this isn’t immigration enforcement. It’s a purge.
We knew CECOT was only the beginning.
When the Trump administration began quietly deporting Venezuelan migrants, many of them asylum seekers, to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, it triggered outrage. In retrospect, that move wasn’t an endpoint. It was a blueprint.
What has emerged since is nothing short of a global system of exile, an authoritarian architecture built to disappear people who lack the right paperwork, the right protection, or the right politics.
And now, that system is expanding in the shadows.
Migrants are no longer simply being deported to their countries of origin. Instead, the administration is flying people to third countries they’ve never set foot in, nations like South Sudan, Costa Rica, and Panama. These deportees include people from Laos, Cuba, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Some are from Ukraine, some from Bhutan, some have green cards, some are children, and some are U.S. citizens.
The Trump administration says it’s deporting violent criminals from Latin America. But that’s not what’s happening. What’s happening is far more chilling.
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Dumped Into Chaos
Earlier this year, eight migrants were put on a military flight and deported to South Sudan. Not a single one was South Sudanese. They came from across the globe: Mexico, Laos, Cuba, Myanmar. South Sudan, itself embroiled in conflict and unable to provide basic stability for its own citizens, was never notified. The migrants were left at an airstrip and told to survive.
Costa Rica and Panama have become warehousing hubs for migrants the U.S. no longer wants. In February, 135 Eastern Europeans, including 65 children, were deported from the United States to Costa Rica’s “Temporary Migrant Care Center,” a euphemism for detention. Many were Ukrainian and Belarusian families who had fled war and persecution. Upon arrival, they had their documents taken and were left in limbo with no translator, no legal support, and no idea where they were.
One Bhutanese refugee, Aasis Subedi, was deported to Nepal despite holding a green card. Bhutan refused to accept him back. He now lives in a refugee camp thousands of miles from his family in the U.S., stateless and alone.
In El Salvador, hundreds of Venezuelans have been locked in CECOT, some accused of gang affiliations based on tattoos or social media posts, most without charges, many after entering the U.S. legally. Their names were never released. Families learned of their fate through leaks.
Each of these people are more than numbers. Their stories matter. See some of them here.
This is not immigration enforcement. This is bureaucratic erasure.
When Citizenship Isn’t Enough
If you think U.S. citizenship offers protection, think again.
This spring, at least two U.S.-born children were deported to Honduras with their undocumented mother. One was just two years old. In another case, a seven-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother, who is battling stage 4 cancer, were also deported. The administration offered no legal justification. There was no hearing. No appeal.
Even permanent legal status no longer guarantees safety. People with green cards, work permits, and pending asylum claims have been removed under wartime-era executive authorities, some resurrected from laws written in the 1700s.
Now, Trump is preparing to go further. He wants to end birthright citizenship. If he succeeds, the number of stateless people will explode.
A Global Network of Exile
The countries involved tell their own stories. The U.S. has confirmed deportations to South Sudan, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala. All are struggling states with varying levels of instability, authoritarian governance, or poverty. However, negotiations are also underway with Libya, Ukraine, Rwanda, Moldova, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, Eswatini, and Angola.
These are not safe countries. These are conflict zones and dictatorships, some with open slave markets, some with histories of genocide. In most of these cases, the deportees have no national connection, no language in common, and no pathway to legal status once they arrive.
Why would these governments agree to take in strangers? The answer is simple: money. The Trump administration is paying them to receive deportees. It’s a transactional purge.
We covered the beginning of this story in our Deportation Nation Series, when we were only aware of the Latin American sites. This article may be of interest:
This Isn’t Just About Immigration Anymore
This is about who belongs and who doesn’t.
What began as a crackdown on undocumented border crossers has evolved into a full-scale dismantling of the legal infrastructure meant to protect the vulnerable. Asylum is being gutted. TPS is gone. Birthright citizenship is under threat. And even U.S. citizens are no longer safe from removal.
This isn’t a slippery slope. We’ve already slid down it.
The administration has tested how far it can go by deporting legal residents to countries they’ve never seen, by sending refugee children into Central American camps, by ignoring court orders and lying about who’s on the flights. And they’ve learned something: they can get away with it. As long as the public believes this is about “criminals from Latin America,” the machinery keeps running.
But it’s not just brown people anymore. It’s white Eastern Europeans. It’s Indian students. It’s children who speak English as their first language. This isn’t just racist. It’s authoritarian. And it’s expanding.
The Rubicon Has Been Crossed
The Trump administration has built something new: a scalable, exportable system for disappearing the unwanted. It is post-legal, post-border, and post-citizenship.
What happens next is up to us.
We need hearings, legal challenges, and public exposure. If we allow this to become normalized, the next time they knock on someone’s door, no passport, green card, or birth certificate will save them.
If this reporting matters to you, share it. Amplify it. And prepare to fight for the soul of immigration—and citizenship itself—before there’s nothing left to defend.
What You Can Do Right Now
Call Congress
Demand immediate oversight of third-country deportations and protections for TPS holders, asylum seekers, and U.S. citizen children.Call the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Ask to speak to your House Representative and both Senators. Say:“I’m calling to demand that my member of Congress speak out against the Trump administration’s deportations to war zones and authoritarian regimes. Congress must hold hearings and pass legislation to stop this human rights crisis.”
Support Legal and Human Rights Defense
ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
Share This Report
Break the silence. The mainstream media isn’t covering this the way it should.
Forward this post. Post on social. Talk to your communities.Stay Informed, Stay Loud
Subscribe. Follow the reporting. Refuse to let this become normal.
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Bibliography:
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"A Look at South Sudan, Where the US Is Accused of Quietly Sending Migrants." Associated Press, May 21, 2025.
"Trump Admin Sends 8 'Barbaric' Illegal Migrants to South Sudan." New York Post, May 21, 2025.
"Judge Rules White House Violated Order by Deporting Migrants to South Sudan." The Guardian, May 21, 2025.
"Medio Centenar de Venezolanos Deportados a El Salvador Entraron Legalmente a Estados Unidos." El País, May 21, 2025.
"Trump 'Unquestionably' Violates a Court Order." Vox, May 21, 2025.
"Trump News at a Glance: Thinktank Finds Legal Immigrants Stripped of Protections and Sent to El Salvador Prison." The Guardian, May 20, 2025.
"Trump Admin Refuses to Provide Info on Gay Venezuelan Immigrant Imprisoned in El Salvador." Them, May 20, 2025.
"Why the Supreme Court Quashed Trump's Due-Process-Free Deportations." The Washington Post, May 19, 2025.
"Judge Says US Violated Order on Deportations to Third Countries." Associated Press, May 21, 2025.
"Trump Officials Violated Court Order over South Sudan Deportation Attempt, Judge Says." Reuters, May 21, 2025.
"They Crossed the World to Reach the US. Now Deported Under Trump." Associated Press, March 10, 2025.
"South Sudan News: Donald Trump Administration Must Keep Control of Myanmar, Vietnam Migrants Deported to South Sudan, Judge Says." ABC7 Chicago, May 21, 2025.
"At Least 50 Migrants Sent to El Salvador Prison Entered US Legally." The Guardian, May 19, 2025.
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"Trump Administration Plans to Deport Migrants to Libya." NPR, May 7, 2025.
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"Bhutanese Nepalis Fled Ethnic Cleansing for the US. Trump Is Deporting Them to Stateless Limbo." The Guardian, May 21, 2025.
"Legal Group Sues Costa Rica Alleging the Rights of 81 Children Deported by Trump Were Violated." Associated Press, April 23, 2025.
"Trump Administration Violated a 2019 Settlement in Deporting a Venezuelan Man to El Salvador, Judge Rules." PBS NewsHour, April 24, 2025.
"Appeals Court Allows Order to Return Deported Venezuelan Man to Go Forward." The Washington Post, May 20, 2025.
"Trump Administration Acknowledges Another Error in a High-Profile Deportation." Politico, May 16, 2025.
"Swiftly Deporting Migrants to Libya Would Violate Court Order, US Judge Says." Reuters, May 7, 2025.
"Trump Team Urged Ukraine to Take U.S. Deportees Amid War." The Washington Post, May 6, 2025.
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The t regime tested the water by sending people to CECOT without due process. When they were ordered to cease and desist, they started sending prisoners to Sudan. Pushing the boundaries of the Constitution and the courts. It's the MO of the Toddler and Cheese in the WH.
What a shame !