From Texas to Tripoli: Inside the Donald Trump administration’s controversial plans to deport US migrants to Libya amid legal battles and outrage

On 6 May, news broke that the Trump administration was about to send illegal migrants to Libya. The following day, Reuters reported that migrants were waiting on a military tarmac in Texas before the flight was cancelled and they were taken back to the Pearsall Detention Centre in southern Texas.

That centre is operated by a private company — CoreCivic, one of the biggest private prison companies with a disgraceful record.

Undoubtedly, the US authorities had some form of agreement with a party in Libya. Otherwise, why would the migrants be taken to the airfield after being told they were going to Libya? After all, such a long flight requires careful preparations, including overflying permissions from third parties.

The moment the news reached Libya, thousands of people took to Facebook, Libyans’ preferred platform, to vent their anger and frustrations.

They expressed their condemnations of the government in Tripoli and, to a lesser extent, its parallel in Benghazi, accusing them of treason and turning the country into a dumping place for 'criminals' when it has its own problem of illegal migrants. 

By evening, the news had become the main talking point on almost all talk shows — except those on government-financed television channels.

Faced with the storm, the Government of National Unity (GNU) issued a statement denying the reports, while implying that 'some parallel entities' might have been 'party' to certain 'understandings [with the US]' — without any obligation to the Libyan state, the statement said. The GNU aimed to implicate the Benghazi government without explicitly naming it.

On 8 May, the GNU’s foreign ministry issued another statement, again denying the reports. Notably, the statement referred to the US 'former administration,' a phrase that became the subject of public mockery.

Among the hundreds of responses to the GNU’s statements, none were sympathetic or tolerant. Libyans, in general, have long since stopped believing anything either of their two governments say.

No smoke without fire 

Since there is no smoke without fire, the majority of Libyans believe that one or both of their two governments have struck some sort of deal with the US to receive deportees.

Many believe — albeit without evidence — that the first group of migrants has already arrived secretly in Misrata, east of Tripoli, while others think that if it did not happen this time, it is only a matter of time before it does. Most comments have called on the judicial authorities to investigate the matter.

Libya has been divided into two competing governments since 2014. While the UN-recognised GNU controls the western region, including the capital, a parallel government controls the eastern and much of the southern regions.

Since the 2011 NATO-backed military uprising, Libya has been rather like a failed state where armed militias roam freely.

By 2014, and despite organising two successful elections, the country was unofficially divided between two governments: the Tripoli-based GNU and the parallel government based in the eastern city of Benghazi, but dominated by General Khalifa Haftar.

More recently, the octogenarian general is dedicating more powers to his sons, particularly Saddam, who commands the ground troops of his father’s Libyan National Army.

In fact, what stopped the human cargo from taking off to Libya was an internal US legal fight, as lawyers representing the would-be deportees hurried to the courts to stop the flight from leaving. Judge Biran Murphy ordered a halt to all deportations without due process.

Attorney Tin Thanh Nguyen told reporters that his client, a Vietnamese construction worker, was among the group scheduled to be deported to Libya. Nguyen said his client was taken in the early hours of the morning to a nearby airfield, where a military plane was waiting.

After hours of waiting on the tarmac, the group was 'bussed' back to the detention centre following the cancellation of the flight, the lawyer said. Mr Nguyen was contacted for comment.

Public not 'buying any of it'

The Trump administration knows only too well that Libya is not safe for migrants. Almost all rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly documented abuses and terrible conditions in detention centres where torture is widespread.

The US State Department’s own 2023 report on Libya identified both authorities in the country as 'perpetrators of abuses against Libyans and migrants.' The current US travel advisory warns American citizens against visiting Libya due to 'crime and terrorism.'

While both Libyan governments denied that they had agreed to accept deportees to their parts of the country, the public is not buying any of it. What further fuelled suspicions is that two separate delegations from Tripoli and Benghazi visited Washington last month.

First, a delegation headed by the GNU’s oil minister met officials in Washington to discuss energy cooperation and helping US companies return to Libya’s lucrative oil and gas sector. On 28 April, Saddam Haftar visited the US and met with officials from the State Department and the Pentagon.

Again, earlier this month, a GNU defence delegation headed by Undersecretary of Defence, Brigadier General Abdulsalam Al-Zoubi, met in Washington with Pentagon and State Department officials. The timing of the meetings and their military nature gave another reason to suspect that the issue of sending migrants to Libya was raised. While Libyan officials denied the issue was raised, the US side neither denied nor confirmed the matter was raised in official meetings, adding to the confusion.

Recently, US defence officials, including senior military leaders, have frequently visited Libya, meeting with officials in Tripoli as well as with General Haftar in Benghazi — the general holds dual US-Libyan citizenship. 

In April, the USS Mount Whitney, a command and control ship, visited Tripoli and Benghazi, drawing public anger and disapproval. Many pointed out that this ship led naval forces during the 2011 NATO-led military intervention in the country. Today, most Libyans still blame that military action for much of the chaos and divisions persisting in Libya today.

Growing outrage

While the international rights groups express their fear for any refugees sent to Libya, given the well-documented mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the country, the Libyans were outraged for different reasons.

They complain that the country is already overwhelmed with illegal migrants and should not accept any more, with many believing that those coming from the US are criminals and likely to stay for good, reviving more fear that Libya is becoming an alternative home for illegal migrants.

The public mood is one of distrust and conjecture, with many pointing out that Libya, given its divisions, does not have full control of its airspace or vast land.

A well-known commentator, speaking anonymously, said if the US wants to bring in migrants, it can "just dump them here under the cover of darkness."

He pointed out a similar event in 2020 involving French self-proclaimed philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who suddenly appeared in the country.

At the time, all government officials and local authorities in Misrata, where he landed, and in Tarhouna, his intended destination, denied granting him permission. To this day, no one admits to having arranged the visit.

A Tripoli-based lawyer, Ali Said, said: "If Trump wants to send illegal migrants to Libya, he will. Failing the first time will not stop him trying again," and post-Gaddafi Libya is "very accommodating to the US," he concluded.

Mustafa Fetouri is an award-winning Libyan journalist, columnist, author, and translator, with contributions to major outlets like Middle East Monitor, Al-Monitor, and Washington Report, and a focus on North Africa and the Sahel region

Follow him on X: @MFetouri