Democratic lawmakers asked the internal watchdogs at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department on Tuesday to investigate the Trump administration’s use of third-country deportations, calling the policy unlawful and costly. The letter, obtained exclusively by NBC News, was sent as the administration was in court seeking to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia.
The request came from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen and Reps. Delia Ramirez and Troy Carter, along with 26 other lawmakers who signed on. In the letter to DHS’ inspector general and the State Department’s acting inspector general, the lawmakers said the administration has secretly deported people to countries they are not from, have no connection to and sometimes have never heard of, leaving many feeling like victims of a human “smuggling operation.”
Warren called the policy “unlawful and costly,” and the letter argued that the practice can put people in places where they have no support or ties. Third-country deportations are typically used when people are barred or protected from being sent back to their home countries, or when those countries refuse to take them back. That makes the policy a sharp break from previous administrations and one that has become a flashpoint inside the broader immigration fight.
The timing sharpened the issue. On Tuesday, the Trump administration was in court seeking to send Abrego Garcia to Liberia, which would be the sixth country it has tried to send him to. A judge ordered in 2019 that he could not be returned to El Salvador because of the danger he faced there. He was wrongly removed to El Salvador in March and later brought back to the United States. His attorney said he has designated Costa Rica as his country of removal and called the administration’s refusal to send him there “retaliatory.”
By Wednesday, the DHS Office of Inspector General said it had received the lawmakers’ letter but could not begin new reviews because of the government shutdown at the agency. The State Department’s inspector general did not immediately respond, while a State Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on congressional correspondence as a general matter and that implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies is a top priority. A DHS spokesperson called allegations that lawfully deporting criminal illegal aliens to third countries is a form of human smuggling “insane,” and said the administration is using all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history. The watchdog request is now on the record, but the first immediate barrier is the shutdown.
