What is documented, and by whom
The central figures come from the Third Country Deportation Watch tracker maintained by Human Rights First and Refugees International. Their update of 18 August 2026 records agreements with more than thirty-five countries since January 2025, and more than twenty-three thousand people transferred to twenty-six countries between 20 January 2025 and 15 August 2026, almost twenty thousand of them to Mexico. The tracker’s overview, revised after 27 October 2026, gives over 25,000 people sent to at least 31 countries, adding the Dominican Republic and Jamaica to the 29 it listed before, in a sentence still dated early September 2026, and at least $49 million paid to third country governments in direct connection with the agreements, not counting flights; the banner on the same page gives 31 countries and more than $81.5 million in direct United States government funding. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants gives over 25,000 people deported to at least 30 countries as of October 2026, and Human Rights First, in a report of 9 October 2026, counts at least 310 people with withholding of removal or protection under the Convention against Torture sent to 15 third countries, at least 114 of whom have since been returned to their countries of origin. Two other counts have been published since. Forbidden Stories, working with a consortium of journalists, counts at least 25,447 people sent to at least 28 countries between January 2025 and 31 August 2026. Human Rights Watch, using ICE data, counts nearly 28,000 people sent to more than 50 countries between 20 January 2025 and 5 August 2026. The counts do not agree, and each should be quoted with its source and its date. Sources: Refugees International and Human Rights First, 18 August 2026, as reported by the Coalition · Third Country Deportation Watch, overview, read 5 November 2026 · USCRI, Third Country Deportations tracker, October 2026 · Human Rights First, In the Middle of the Night, They Come and Get You, 9 October 2026 · Forbidden Stories, The Deportation Project, 21 September 2026 · HRW, To Scare People, 8 October 2026, p. 10
The release of 18 August also records that the United States has not disclosed the text of many of these agreements, and names the Case-Zablocki Act requirement that international agreements be transmitted to Congress within sixty days of entry into force.
The court record is separate and independently checkable. The Coalition maintains a register of 175 orders, each linked to a free public copy, so that a reporter can read the order rather than the summary.
What the Coalition will not claim
It will not say that a person was tortured where what exists is an allegation, and it will not describe a return as refoulement where what is established is that a person went back. It does not hold case files, it does not represent anyone, and it will not put a journalist in touch with a person in detention.
Where a page says “Investigating”, that is a statement about the public record and not a finding that the thing did not happen. The distinction is deliberate and it is stated on every country page.
Two things worth checking independently
Figures move. The transfer totals have been revised upward repeatedly, and any number quoted here carries the date it was published. Take the current figure from the tracker rather than from this site.
Orders move faster. Several decisions in the register have been stayed, superseded or overtaken since they were issued. Each entry links to the public copy so that the current status can be checked before it is reported.