BREAKING: ICE charter lands in Congo following third-country deportation deal
The likely ICE flight landed in Kinshasa in the early morning hours Friday, and a second ICE charter aircraft appeared to also be bound for central Africa.
An aircraft operated by an ICE charter airline landed in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo late Thursday, days after the government there announced it would begin accepting migrants with no ties to the country who are being removed from the United States as early as this week.
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.
A Gulfstream jet operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation left Mesa, AZ, early Thursday and, after stopping in Ireland, also appeared to be headed toward central Africa at time of publishing, according to flight data. 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 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.
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.
I will update this story when the Journey aircraft lands at its expected removal destination. I've also reached out to ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and several human-rights groups for comment and will update this story if they respond.
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
