Libya

In May 2025, the United States bussed 13 migrants detained in Texas to a U.S. military aircraft that was scheduled to take them to Libya. At least one of the migrants, a man from the Philippines, had been told that he would be taken to Libya. Another, a Mexican national, was given a written notice that he was being removed to Libya. A U.S. federal court granted an emergency motion filed that same day, blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from transferring non-Libyans to Libya without notice or an opportunity to raise protection claims because this violated an existing court injunction. The flight appeared to be canceled after the court’s ruling. After the migrants were held on the bus for hours, the bus returned to the detention center. According to flight trackers and a defense official, the plane did not depart for Libya.

The terms and circumstances of an agreement with Libya, if one exists, are unclear. In a public statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Government of National Unity rejected reports of an agreement with U.S. authorities, insisting that “it categorically denies any agreement or coordination  with U.S. authorities regarding the deportation of migrants to Libya.” Despite those denials, reporting indicates that the Trump administration had been in discussions with Libya to negotiate a formal agreement to receive transfers of individuals who are not Libyan citizens.

At the time of the reported planned transfers to Libya, a preliminary injunction was in place in U.S. federal litigation in D.V.D. v. DHS, prohibiting the U.S. government from deporting people to third countries that it never raised as a potential country of removal during their immigration proceedings, without notice or an opportunity to present a fear claim with respect to the third country. This practice denies people due process and risks their deportation to persecution and torture. It violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, Constitutional due process protections, and international treaty obligations codified in U.S. law including the prohibition on refoulement. After counsel in D.V.D. v. DHS filed an emergency motion to block the planned transfers to Libya, the federal court that issued the preliminary injunction clarified that proceeding with the transfers to Libya would violate the injunction. The Supreme Court later stayed the injunction in June 2025 pending a decision on the merits.

The potential risks for non-Libyan migrants forcibly transferred to Libya are serious. The U.S. State Department advises against all travel to Libya because of widespread crime, terrorism and armed conflict. Human rights groups have long documented systematic abuses of migrants in Libya, including trafficking, ransom, and torture. Ongoing civil war and the fractured governance structure of the country have left migrants especially vulnerable. Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, stated that: “It is dystopian to strong-arm a fractured country like Libya with a well-documented history of horrific detention conditions by unaccountable armed groups to take in more detainees. Libya’s ill-treatment of migrants is notorious, its detention centers are hellholes, and refugees have nowhere to turn for protection.”