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An investigation by the independent Nicaraguan media Confidencial revealed that the administration of Donald Trump has deported to Nicaragua 116 foreigners from 16 nationalities between January 2025 and June 2026, without any formal agreement to support these transfers.
Of the identified nationalities, Cubans would rank second, with 19 people deported to Nicaragua, surpassed only by Hondurans (22).
The most striking thing is that the regime of Daniel Ortega would have secretly accepted these foreign citizens, unlike the other Central American countries, which do have public agreements as “third country receivers of deportees.”
Nicaragua has never officially announced or acknowledged these revenues.
How are the 116 deportees distributed?
In addition to 22 Hondurans and 19 Cubans, the breakdown would also include Ecuadorians (17), Guatemalans (11), Colombians (11), Peruvians (7), Venezuelans (6), Salvadorans (6), and Nigerians (5), as well as one or two citizens from Bangladesh, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, India, Iran, and Mexico.
For Cubans, this situation adds to an increasingly complex landscape of deportations: Cuba refuses to accept many of its nationals, which has led Washington to send them to third countries.
In total, just over 42,000 Cubans have final deportation orders in the United States, and thousands have been left stranded in situations of extreme vulnerability.
How did the deportees arrive and under what codes?
The data cited by Confidencial comes from the Deportation Data Project, operated by university scholars through public information access requests.
33% of the deportees left from Miami International Airport, and 25% from Alexandria, Louisiana.
Most arrived individually or in pairs, although on March 19 and May 9, 2025, groups of five and six people were recorded, respectively.
Regarding the applied codes:
- 82 people were sent under "code 8" (intercepted at the border or taken from within).
- 22 under the "code 3" (voluntary exit before a judge).
-11 under the "code 6" (violation of immigration laws).
- One under the "zero code" (voluntary retirement before the official).
Without a formal agreement, but with acceptance on a case-by-case basis
Neither the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua nor ICE responded to inquiries from Confidencial.
Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, explained to the cited media outlet the legal framework for such deportations:
“The United States government can deport a citizen to another country as long as that country allows entry,” although it warned that “there is little clarity in Nicaragua's decisions regarding who is accepted and why.”
Carolina Sediles, legal advisor of the Nicaraguan American Alliance for Human Rights (NAHRA), specified that the lack of an agreement “does not necessarily prohibit sending people of other nationalities to Nicaragua, as long as the Government authorizes it.”
Authorizations are granted "on a case-by-case basis," with the possibility of "ad hoc consent, special documents, prior residence, dual nationality, or other individual grounds."
Secret agreements and millions of dollars
This practice falls within Trump's immigration policy, which has established agreements with more than 30 nations and has forcibly sent over 17,400 people to third countries with which many have no ties, according to a report by Human Rights First in May 2026.
Washington has paid at least 44 million dollars to recipient governments, several of which are responsible for serious human rights violations, in agreements that remain secret in possible violation of the Case-Zablocki Act of 1972.
On February 27, 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts declared this policy illegal for violating federal immigration law and the right to due process.
The Supreme Court temporarily authorized it in June 2026 while the litigation progresses.
The deportations to third countries have left thousands of migrants in a state of absolute defenselessness, with neither their countries of origin nor the receiving countries taking responsibility for their fate.
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