The U.S. Sent Dozens of Migrants to a Country They're Not From — Including a Man a Judge Tried to Protect

The United States on Saturday sent dozens of people to the Central African Republic, a country most of them are not from. Among them was an Afghan man whose brothers had helped the U.S. military and who a U.S. judge had protected from being sent back to Afghanistan, according to his lawyer and an advocacy group (NPR).

The flight landed in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on August 30, 2026. Savi Arvey of Human Rights First said the group included 12 Afghans, eight Iranians, and several people from Nepal and Nicaragua. This was the second flight to the Central African Republic since June, when an earlier flight carried two dozen migrants, including an Iranian woman who faced persecution in her home country.

The Afghan man, in his early twenties, had been granted a protection called "withholding of removal" by a U.S. judge. This means the judge found he would likely face persecution by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the government was not allowed to send him there. Under U.S. law, this protection bars the government from deporting someone to a specific country where they could be harmed because of their race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals).

Court documents seen by The Associated Press show the man's family in Afghanistan had received threats from the Taliban because of his brothers' work with the U.S. military. One brother, who now lives in the United States, served in the Afghan National Army, which worked with American forces before the Taliban took over in 2021. Another brother, a pilot trained by the United States, was killed by the Taliban.

A law called the Afghan Allies Protection Act provides special visas for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government (DHS). The deported man's case was different: he was at risk because of his brothers' service, not his own work for the U.S. government.

Under agreements that are often secret, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to about two dozen countries that are not their own, according to advocates. The Central African Republic is one of those countries. In the past, ICE has deported people with terrorism-related ties to their own countries of citizenship, including a Somali-born Canadian national with close ties to al-Qaeda (ICE) and a British national sentenced for supporting terrorism fundraising (ICE). Those cases involved sending people back to their own countries, not to a third country.

The broader context here is how the government is using third-country removals to get around protections granted by judges. Think of it like a restraining order that says you cannot be sent to one specific country. The government is not sending the man to Afghanistan. Instead, it is sending him to a different country the judge never considered. The protection order only barred removal to Afghanistan, not to the Central African Republic.

A key question for lawyers is whether the Central African Republic itself poses a risk of persecution on similar grounds, which could create a separate legal barrier to sending someone there. The Department of Justice has recognized that fear of the Taliban based on political opinion or religion can qualify someone for protection (DOJ). Whether that protection extends to the dangers a person might face in a third country is not yet settled in the courts.

The program is largely hidden from the public. The agreements with other countries are often secret. The details of who is on these flights have come from advocacy groups, not from the government. Human Rights First identified the nationalities on the Bangui flight. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not published a corresponding release.

For the Afghan man, the protection he received barred his removal to Afghanistan. It did not bar his removal to a third country. How the government chose the Central African Republic, and whether it assessed the conditions he would face there, is not clear from the available record. His lawyer and the advocacy group have not said what legal challenges, if any, remain.

The second flight to Bangui in three months suggests the Central African Republic is now a regular destination in the administration's deportation framework, alongside the roughly two dozen other countries identified by advocates. The June flight, carrying an Iranian woman who faced persecution in Iran, established the route. Saturday's flight, with more people and the inclusion of an Afghan man whose family directly helped U.S. military operations, tests the limits of judicially ordered protection in a new way.