If you have a final order of removal, this news reaches you directly, even if your home country is nowhere in it. Between August 20 and August 30, 2026, three flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried more than 100 people to eight countries in Africa. None of them were sent to their country of nationality.
At Campos Law Firm, we closely monitor developments in U.S. immigration policy to protect our clients’ rights and future. Below, we explain what is known, what the law says, and what you can do.
¿Qué está pasando?
On August 30, 2026, CBS News reported, based on internal U.S. government documents, that over a ten-day span ICE deported more than 100 people to Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. The EFE news agency carried the report in Spanish the same day.
Those removed included Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Afghans, Iranians, Nepalis, and Turks, along with nationals of other African countries. One case documented by CBS News involves a 24-year-old Afghan man whose family worked alongside U.S. forces and who was deported despite having been granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge.
What is new is not the practice itself but the scale and coordination: eight separate destinations in little more than a week. According to CBS News, more than 30 countries have signed agreements to accept third-country nationals deported by Washington; no official published list confirms that figure.
What is a “third-country” deportation?
It is removal to a country that is neither the person’s own nor the one designated during their case. The law permits it, but only as a last resort and in a set order. Section 241(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)) sets a sequence: first the country the person designates; then their country of nationality; then countries with which they have ties, such as birth or last residence. Only when those options are impracticable or impossible may the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) send someone to any other country willing to receive them.
The litigation of the past two years turns on whether the government is following that sequence or skipping to the end. On July 9, 2025, ICE issued guidance allowing these removals with 24 hours’ notice, reduced to 6 hours in exigent circumstances, and imposing no duty on the officer to ask whether the person fears the destination country: fear is screened only if the person raises it on their own.
In February 2026, federal judge Brian E. Murphy vacated that policy as unlawful. But on March 16, 2026, the First Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that ruling while the appeal proceeds. In other words: as of this article, the ICE policy is in effect, and the procedural protections the district court ordered are not.
If I was granted protection from my own country, am I protected?
This is the most important distinction, and the one that causes the most confusion. Not necessarily.
Withholding of removal (INA 241(b)(3)) and protection under the Convention Against Torture (8 C.F.R. §§ 208.16–208.18) are country-specific. If a judge found you cannot be returned to Venezuela, Cuba, or Afghanistan, that finding is about that country. It does not automatically protect you from Eswatini, Rwanda, or Liberia, because no court has yet assessed the risk you would face there.
That is precisely the gap the Afghan case documented by CBS News fell through. And it explains how someone holding a grant of protection can still end up on a flight.
Having a final order is also not the same as being in proceedings. If your case is still open before the Immigration Court, this policy does not apply to you today. The class certified in D.V.D. v. DHS covers people with final orders issued after February 18, 2025.
¿Qué puedes hacer ahora?
If you have, or believe you may have, a final order of removal, your window to react can be six hours. Preparing in advance is the only thing that works.
- Talk to an attorney before your next check-in appointment, not after. Detention often happens at the check-in.
- State your fear out loud and immediately if an officer names any destination country. Under the current guidance, silence is read as the absence of fear.
- Put it in writing ahead of time: an attorney can file notice with ICE listing every country where you fear persecution or torture, together with a request for a stay of removal.
- Keep your documents ready and accessible to a family member: A-number, court orders, any grant of protection, your attorney’s phone number.
- Consider the judicial routes: a motion to reopen before the Immigration Court or the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), limited to the newly designated country, or a habeas corpus petition (28 U.S.C. § 2241) if you are detained.
- Keep your address current with Form AR-11, and never miss an appointment without telling your attorney.
One honest warning: once a person has physically left the United States, the remedies available are extremely limited. The useful window is before the flight.
Protege tu situación migratoria con el bufete de abogados Campos
This policy remains in litigation and could shift in the coming months depending on the First Circuit’s ruling. What does not change is that every case is analyzed individually: the date of your order, whether you hold protection and against which country, your compliance history, and your family situation determine what options you have and how urgently you must act.
If you or a family member has a final order of removal, Campos Law Firm is here to help you build a strategy before a notice arrives. No dejes tu situación migratoria al azar. Llámanos hoy mismo al +1 (844) 922-6767 para concertar una consulta gratuita y confidencial en inglés o en español. Bufete de Abogados Campos: soluciones jurídicas en todas las áreas del derecho.
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