The Trump administration deported approximately 15 Latin American migrants to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on April 17, 2026, as part of a third-country deportation program. The deportees, including nationals from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, held legal protection orders from U.S. immigration judges against return to their home countries. Under a U.S.-Congo agreement, the migrants were granted 7-day visas extendable to three months and placed in a hotel in Kinshasa. The International Organization for Migration was tasked with providing humanitarian assistance and exploring assisted voluntary return options. The U.S. has established similar third-country deportation agreements with at least seven African nations and spent approximately $40 million deporting roughly 300 migrants under this program, with a second flight of 30 additional migrants scheduled for April 22. Fifteen Latin Americans, including a 29-year-old Colombian woman, were deported by the U.S. to Congo under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. The woman, who had received a U.S. immigration judge's protection order and a federal judge's ruling that she could not be safely returned to Colombia, was detained again at an ICE check-in despite a February 2025 habeas corpus release. She and others were flown to Congo with restrained hands and feet, arriving April 17, 2025, and are now confined to a hotel near Kinshasa's airport with supervised outings and facing impossible choices: return to home countries or remain in Congo with no support.