Washington — The U.S. is deporting unauthorized migrants from nations in Africa and Asia to Panama, a major diplomatic breakthrough for the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, internal federal documents obtained by CBS News show.
On Wednesday, an American military flight deported Asian migrants who were in U.S. immigration custody to Panama, the first known deportation of its kind under the Trump administration. They included adults and families with children from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran and Uzbekistan, according to the documents.
Another U.S. military flight to Panama planned for Thursday is expected to deport more Asian migrants, in addition to some African deportees. The documents show they include migrants from Cameroon.
In a statement Thursday, Panama’s foreign ministry confirmed it received on Wednesday the first flight under an agreement with the Trump administration that allows the U.S. to deport non-Panamanians to the Central American country.
The ministry said Wednesday’s deportation flight included 119 deportees from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The costs of the deportations under the agreement will be covered by the U.S., the ministry added.
The deportations to the Central American country, a corridor for the mass migration that has gripped the region in recent years, represent a significant diplomatic win for President Trump and his government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration.
The U.S. has long had difficulty deporting migrants from Africa and Asia, due to the long distances involved in deportations to the Eastern Hemisphere and decisions by governments in those continents to limit or reject American deportations flights. The New York Times first reported Wednesday’s deportation of Asian migrants.
The flights also underscore how aggressively and quickly the Trump administration is moving to convince countries across the region to accept migrants who are difficult to deport, even though they are not citizens of their nations.
The governments of El Salvador and Guatemala have already agreed to accept migrant deportees from the U.S. who are not from their countries. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has even offered to accept and detain suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who are expelled from the U.S.
The Trump administration has pushed more deportation agreements, though it’s unclear how many more arrangements will be agreed to. One plan that had been considered would have sent third-country nationals to the South American nation of Guyana, two U.S. officials told CBS News, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Panama’s willingness to accept the deportees also comes as Mr. Trump has expressed an interest in retaking control of the strategically important Panama Canal, which the U.S. ceded to Panama in 1999. Panama’s leaders have rejected the idea outright, and disputed claims by Mr. Trump and U.S. officials about China’s influence on the canal’s operations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in his first international trip shortly after taking office, and the State Department said last week that the U.S. had reached a deal that would allow its military ships to transit the canal for free. Panama’s president said no such deal had been reached and that the State Department’s statement was “based on a falsity.”
Representatives for the Departments of Homeland Security and State did not respond to requests to comment on the deportation flights to Panama.
Like the U.S., Panama has faced significant migration challenges in recent years.
The Darién Gap, a once-impenetrable roadless and mountainous jungle that divides Panama and Colombia, has become a busy transit route for migrants hoping to make their way through Central America and Mexico to enter the U.S.
In 2023, more than half-a-million migrants, most of them from Venezuela, crossed the Darién jungle into Panama, a record. That number decreased to more than 300,000 in 2024, though that was still the second-highest annual tally recorded by Panamanian authorities.
— Jose Diaz contributed to this report.
