ICE charter lands in Congo carrying 15 Latin American migrants

Note: This story has been updated with new information about the people on the flight to Congo plus the destination of a second ICE jet, a Gulfstream V.

An aircraft operated by an ICE charter airline landed in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo late Thursday carrying about 15 migrant from Latin American countries, marking the beginning its third-country removal program with the Trump administration.

The Boeing 767 operated by Omni Air International left the ICE detention hub of Alexandria, LA, just after midnight Thursday, briefly stopping in Senegal and Ghana before landing in Kinshasa at 1:20 a.m. local time Friday, according to public flight data.

Omni is ICE's only large-jet charter carrier for removal flights to Africa and Asia, including numerous third-country removal flights. (You can read my Mother Jones story about this here.) Third-country nationals may have also been removed during the stop in Ghana, according to the ICE Flight Monitor at Human Rights First.

There were about 15 migrants onboard from Latin American countries, all of whom appear to have had legal protections in US courts from removal to their countries of origin, a lawyer who represents one of them told the Associated Press. A Congolese minister told the AP they are being held at a hotel until their transportation to those countries of origin can be arranged.

"Sending Latin Americans to the DRC to be 'voluntarily returned' to their home countries from there is obviously intended to do an end run around the law," Yael Shacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, told me.

The Congolese government first announced it had struck a deal with the Trump administration on April 6. Though it did not say how many migrants it would be accepting or under what circumstances, it said their presence in Congo would be "temporary" and that the US government would cover all of their expenses. Sources told Reuters Tuesday the first group of at least 30 migrants would arrive this week.

Congo becomes at least the eighth African nation to take citizens of other countries expelled by ICE under President Trump, along with Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Eswatini. Of those, only Ghana is a stable democracy. Most of the countries have been hard hit by Trump's tariffs and migration bans.

Liberia and perhaps Libya have also signed deals with the Trump administration, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, though it is unknown if any third-country nationals have been expelled to either country yet. Egypt has also participated in the forced transfer deportation of Russians at least five times since last summer.

About 300 migrants had been expelled to African countries at a cost of at least $40 million – and likely much more – according to a February report from Democratic senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Most have been forced back to their countries of origin despite many having withholding of removal orders in the US; some have been imprisoned indefinitely in the countries they were sent to without any charge.

Trump has repeatedly touted a supposed peace deal he struck between Congo and Rwanda last year, though fighting between the two countries has continued. It is a violation of US and international to deport someone to an active warzone.

As the Omni plane landed in Kinshasa Friday, a Gulfstream jet operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation left Mesa, AZ, early Thursday and, was also headed toward central Africa after a stop in Ireland to refuel. John Lannon, an activist with Shannonwatch, told me he and at least two other people called authorities while the aircraft was on the ground in Ireland, asking them to search the plane for human-rights violations under Irish law, which did not appear to have been done. The light later landed in Nairobi.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Thank you for reading. I am a former Washington Post staff writer and, as far as I know, the only journalist in America covering ICE flights full time. I am committed to keeping this reporting non-paywalled, but if you are able, please sign up for a paid subscription or send me a one-time tip, so I can continue to focus on this important work. –Gillian