The first group of U.S. deportees arrived in Liberia on Thursday, amid a growing backlash there, with critics saying the Liberian government’s deal with the Trump administration to accept 1,200 deportees is too large and too opaque.
The deal with Liberia, in West Africa, is one of the largest struck by the Trump administration for so-called third-country deportations, meaning that the deportees are not being sent to their home countries. The majority of the countries making such agreements have been in Africa, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and South Sudan, among others.
Twenty deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport on Thursday afternoon, in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, according to the Liberian government. It is unclear if any of them have criminal records in the United States. But the agreement has sparked questions among Liberians about a lack of transparency.
“The issue of deportations is raising many concerns that can’t be left unanswered,” said Adama Dempster, a human rights lawyer and activist in Liberia. “What conditions will they be held in? And how does Liberia benefit?” he said. “Liberians, we are hospitable people, we love strangers. But the government should explain this.”
The deportees will initially be held in a government facility and be allowed to seek asylum in Liberia or return to their home countries, said Jerolinmek Matthew Piah, Liberia’s information minister.
“They are being received as guests,” he said in a statement. He highlighted Liberia’s history of welcoming refugees and migrants, often deported to countries where they have no ties, as an explanation for the deal.
Liberia’s government has said it did not demand or receive any compensation as part of the deportation deal with the Trump administration. Mr. Dempster said this was hard to believe, considering the economic challenges in a country where more than half of the six million people live in poverty.
“What is more concerning is that the U.S. is sending 1,200, a high number. Liberia has a struggling economy where unemployment is high, what conditions will be put in place to help?”
Thirty countries have made third-country deportation deals with the Trump administration, according to Human Rights First, a nonprofit group that tracks deportations.
For several months, the administration pushed to send to Liberia Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant whose deportation case has become a symbol of the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Mr. Abrego Garcia spent months in a notorious prison built for terrorists after being deported to El Salvador last year. He was later returned to the United States, then faced human smuggling charges that were later thrown out by a federal judge in Nashville as an abuse of prosecutorial powers.
U.S. and Liberian officials have not said whether Mr. Abrego Garcia was among the deportees sent to Liberia on Thursday.
No information about the deportees’ records has been made public, fueling anxiety in Liberia, where crime centered on the drug trade has exploded in recent years. A crackdown by law enforcement has seen hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine seized by officials.
“It’s risky for us,” said Yarssah Jallah, 35-year-old food vendor in Monrovia. “We already have the drug issue here. We don’t know who is who.”
On Wednesday, a former vice president, Jewel Taylor, was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. She is the ex-wife of Charles Taylor, a former Liberian president and convicted war criminal.
Mr. Piah, the information minister, said the deportees were not “criminals” and “not being prosecuted in any manner under United States or Liberian law.” But his denials have been met with skepticism among rights groups that say his statement does not adequately address whether the deportees had criminal records or were awaiting trial.
The deal with the Trump administration has also raised questions about whether diplomatic pressure was applied on Liberia, a country with deep ties to the United States. Liberian history is rooted in America’s “Back to Africa” movement and the American Colonization Society, a group formed in 1816 by philanthropists, abolitionists as well as some slave owners.
The group helped resettle free Black Americans in what would become Liberia. At Liberia’s independence, its constitution and flag were modeled on those of the United States. English is the country’s official language.
Last year, Joseph Boakai, Liberia’s president, was one of five African leaders to meet with President Trump at the White House. The meeting caused a stir when Mr. Trump complimented Mr. Boakai on his English, asking him “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?”
Liberia’s economy and health system have been hit hard by cuts to American foreign aid, damaging perceptions of the United States, and fueling suspicions that Liberia was forced to negotiate from a position of weakness.
“As a sovereign country, was it possible for President Joseph Boakai to have refused President Donald Trump’s offer of accepting those individuals?” asked Clara Mallah, a program officer at the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia, a civil society group based in the capital.
“Why can’t America keep them? Why Liberia?”
Tina Mehnpaine and Dounard Bondo contributed reporting from Monrovia.
