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customs and border protection
Human Rights Group Blasts Trump Admin for Deporting Hundreds of Non-Costa Ricans to Costa Rica
"These summary expulsions violated the right to seek asylum and the right to a fair hearing and other due process protections prior to deportation," according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
May 22, 2025
Dozens of non-Costa Rican nationals who were deported to Costa Rica by the Trump administration in February say they did not receive an asylum screening interview before being expelled, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch on Thursday.
The report alleges that the U.S. government did not follow the "minimal, if deficient" protections around the right to seek asylum and the right not be returned to harm, and kept those expelled in "inhumane conditions" while they were detained in the United States.
The report explores one instance of the Trump administration expelling migrants to a country besides their country of origin, a tactic the administration has repeatedly reached for as part of its immigration crackdown.
In the report, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.S. government to stop expelling or transferring noncitizens to third countries.
In February, Costa Rica received two flights with 200 deportees, including 81 children, from the U.S. as part of an expulsion agreement, the details of which have not been disclosed, according to the report.
"I genuinely think the [U.S.] authorities treated us so poorly, held us in those horrendous, degrading conditions, to force us to sign those volunteer deportation papers as fast as possible and maybe also to tell others, so that people would be scared to seek asylum, to come to the U.S.," said one 33-year old woman from Russia who was deported to Costa Rica.
In some cases, U.S. officials separated families when carrying out the expulsions to Costa Rica. In one instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent an Iranian man and his daughter to Costa Rica but kept the girl's stepmother in the U.S., according to the report.
Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of the migrants sent to Costa Rica and heard stories from those people that, "if true, indicate that people fled persecution based on factors such as ethnicity, religion, gender, family associations, and political opinion."
U.S. law guarantees the right to apply for asylum, and while many of those who spoke to Human Rights Watch appeared to have strong claims, only two out of 36 people interviewed by the group had a screening interview for asylum in the U.S. before being deported to Costa Rica. Almost all of the 36 people said U.S. officials ignored their repeated attempts to request asylum, per the report.
Some of the people whom Human Rights Watch spoke to had been in Mexico and made appointments to present themselves at a U.S. point of entry to seek asylum through an application developed by CBP, CBP One. When the Trump administration canceled all pending appointments through CBP One, some went to U.S. checkpoints to request asylum, while others crossed irregularly, such as by climbing over or through gaps in the border wall and then sought out or "waited for" U.S. border agents, according to the report.
Once apprehended, those who spoke to Human Rights Watch reported conditions such as freezing temperatures, little access to showers, and families being separated while being held at immigration processing centers.
"In every case documented by Human Rights Watch, DHS expelled people to Costa Rica without following the deportation processes set forth in U.S. law—not even the streamlined process known as 'expedited removal,'" according to the report, referencing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "Instead, acting under the purported authority of a presidential proclamation, DHS agents sent people to Costa Rica, a country of which they are not nationals and to which they had no intention of traveling."
"These summary expulsions violated the right to seek asylum and the right to a fair hearing and other due process protections prior to deportation, in violation of statutory and constitutional guarantees and international treaties ratified by the United States," the report states.
The people interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that they were not given the necessary documents required to be issued during a deportation proceeding. They reported being taken to an airfield and given no explanation until they were about to board the plane to Costa Rica.
Human Rights Watch says those deported were then initially subject to arbitrary detention in Costa Rica, and in practice they were not allowed to freely leave the center where they were being held except under certain circumstances. The Costa Rican government says they were not "detained" and indicated instead that freedom of movement was limited for their own safety, according to the report.
In April, officials in Costa Rica told them they could obtain a humanitarian permit that would give them 90 days to apply for asylum in Costa Rica or leave the country.
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Leftist Online Creators Say They've Been Detained and Questioned Over Anti-Trump Content
"No U.S. citizen should be detained by law enforcement, at the border or anywhere, because of their protected speech."
May 12, 2025
"It happened," said progressive online political commentator Hasan Piker on Sunday in a cryptic post on the social media site X—one that suggested he wasn't altogether surprised when he was detained for several hours by border agents at a Chicago airport after flying back to the U.S. from France.
He explained to his 1.5 million followers later that he had been stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents "for additional questioning."
"I'm out, it wasn't that bad," said Piker. "Very strange experience overall though."
Piker shares his commentary primarily on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch, and detailed the ordeal for his followers on both platforms.
The questions over the two-hour period suggested that the Trump administration has been following Piker's commentary, which has recently included vehement criticism of U.S. support for Israel as it bombards and starves the people of Gaza.
"They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently," Piker said. "[The agent] kept saying stuff like, do you like Hamas? Do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a terror group or a resistance group?"
Piker shared his story as TikTok creator Savannah Pinder, who makes anti-Trump videos and clothing, said publicly that she had been detained at Miami International Airport after passing through Global Entry.
Pinder was taken to several different screening rooms and questioned about her work, travel history, and her father's citizenship status. Her father was born in Panama and became a U.S. citizen. Pinder, is a U.S. citizen and was born and raised in the United States.
"They asked me to provide my social media accounts for them to go through my TikTok, my Snapchat, my Instagram, and my Facebook, as well as show them how much I was making daily on TikTok," Pinder said. "If you are a United States citizen, you still have the chance of being detained coming back into the United States right now."
ICE detains woman who runs anti-Trump TikTok—she is U.S. citizen born & raised.
She was detained for hours as agents searched phone & social media—even demanding financial statements on how much she earns on TikTok.
Her clothing brand is named "Trump For The Dump"—she donates… pic.twitter.com/FsaX2MTYhV
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) May 10, 2025
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali, whose work has been published in The Nation, The Intercept, and other publications, said he has had several experiences like the one described by Piker at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
"Been pulled into secondary screening many times and O'Hare CBP had the most involved and specific questions about Gaza for me by far," saidMalekafzali.
Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the incidents show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP "are the 'enemies domestic' that federal officials swear an oath to defend against."
"No U.S. citizen should be detained by law enforcement, at the border or anywhere, because of their protected speech," said Cohn.
Piker said he believes border agents are detaining and questioning commentators and journalists "to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself or at least like others that would be in my shoes, that don't have that same level of security, to shut the fuck up."
The incidents follow the abductions by federal immigration agents of foreign student protesters whom the Trump administration has pushed to deport for speaking out against U.S. support for Israel and expressing support for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Immigration agents "flagging and detaining one of the U.S.'s largest left-wing voices for their political opinions while the Trump administration suggests they might suspend habeas corpus does not portend well for the future," said lawyer and writer Alex Peter.
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French Scientist Denied Entry to US Over Anti-Trump Messages
"The purpose is to create fear and self-censorship everywhere," said one pro-democracy advocate.
Mar 20, 2025
France's minister of higher education and research spoke out Thursday over reports that a French scientist was refused entry to the U.S. after customs agents found messages on his cellphone that were critical of President Donald Trump—yet another incident that has raised alarm over the Trump administration's views of First Amendment rights.
The unnamed space researcher works for the French government's National Center for Scientific Research and was traveling on March 9 to a conference in the Houston area when he was reportedly randomly selected by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents for a search.
The officers searched his electronic devices—something that happened to fewer than 0.01% of the international travelers who arrived in the U.S. in 2024, according to the CBP—and found messages that "conveyed hatred of Trump and could be qualified as terrorism," the agency said.
The messages reportedly criticized Trump's treatment of scientists and his views on academic freedom, and prompted an FBI investigation that was quickly dropped.
With the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which billionaire Tesla CEO and Trump megadonor Elon Musk was named to lead, the president has introduced massive cuts to the National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies—slashing jobs and tens of billions of dollars in grants that fund crucial work that has helped the U.S. become a leader in scientific and biomedical research.
"It's no secret that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency effort has resulted in millions of dollars in cuts to scientific research," wrote Hafiz Rashid at The New Republic on Wednesday. "The idea that criticism of this would rise to the level of terrorism and result in someone being barred from the U.S. is absurd."
The researcher's apparent expression of disapproval regarding Trump's policies led officers to confiscate his phone and computer before sending him back to France the next day.
"It's no secret that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency effort has resulted in millions of dollars in cuts to scientific research. The idea that criticism of this would rise to the level of terrorism and result in someone being barred from the U.S. is absurd."
"Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold," Philippe Baptiste, the French research minister, said in a statement. "I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world."
Baptiste said CBP officers only found that the scientist's "phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friendly relations in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy."
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has detained and pushed to deport a recent Columbia University graduate and a Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow for statements they and their family members have made in support of Palestinian rights and criticizing U.S. and Israeli policy in the occupied Palestine territories, accusing them without evidence of providing aid and support to Hamas.
The president also said last week that critical coverage of his administration by media companies such as CNN and MSNBC "has to be illegal."
National security researcher and analyst Olga Lautman said the CBP's decision to refuse entry to the French scientist serves as "more proof that we are now an authoritarian state."
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the pro-democracy group DAWN, said that "searching people's cellphones and punishing them for having critical comments is exactly what the dictators in Egypt and Syria have done," and pointed to a recent Amnesty International report about a British national, Ahmed al-Doush, who was arrested by Saudi authorities after finding a social media post by him that they objected to.
"The purpose" of the CBP's recent actions, said Whitson, "is to create fear and self-censorship everywhere."
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