Monday briefing: Inside Trump’s deportation machine – ‘Your fate is out of your control’
Good morning. If you want to grasp the true cost of what it means to “secure our borders,” skip the panicked headlines about “mega-dinghies” arriving on British shores and the pictures of Patriot Platform’s black-clad enthusiasts, and look across the Atlantic. Since 2025, the Trump administration has deported about 5,000 people on flights to “third countries” where they have no family ties or history, sometimes as far as Ghana and Sierra Leone. A Guardian investigation published today exposes the staggering cruelty of this sinister policy. It seems deliberately designed to stoke fear, and shows how far-right ideas that once belonged on the fringes of politics have become so mainstream that they’re now barely opposed. These deportations often happen very quickly, with people given little notice of what is going to happen to them. That creates huge challenges for lawyers trying to defend people who are shackled on flights, and for journalists trying to tell their stories. For this morning’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s investigations correspondent Louisa Loveluck about the lives of the people caught up in this policy, and how the Trump administration has created a deportation machine. That’s after the headlines. Weekend roundup Russia | European intelligence officials have raised the possibility of an imminent Russian test of Nato, with one saying a potential attack could come in a matter of “months, not years”. Domestic violence | About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found. Ed Sheeran | Ed Sheeran has opened a solo concert in Philadelphia with comments about Gaza, saying what is happening is “catastrophic and unjustifiable”, in his first show since his tour was plunged into turmoil. Spycops scandal | Victims of intrusive police surveillance have accused the government of seeking to cut short the spycops public inquiry that has been examining widespread misconduct committed by undercover officers. Royal family | Earl Spencer has said the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister Diana, Princess of Wales. In an interview with the BBC aired on Sunday evening, Spencer described the press’s coverage of Harry and Meghan as having a “cancerous influence”. In depth: The people caught in Trump’s deportation machine The second Trump administration has struck 35 deals with nations such as Eswatini and Central African Republic, allowing it to deport migrants and asylum seekers to nations where they have no connections. Federal officers can deport immigrants with as little as six hours notice, even if they have no assurances that people will be safe from persecution or torture (a US court judgment recently challenged the short timeframe, and the government is expected to appeal it). In many cases, these countries then deport people onwards to the places they fled – something that is technically illegal under US law. Since 2025, more than 5,000 people have been put on planes to countries other than their own, including those in Latin America, Africa, central Asia and the Caribbean. Louisa has been investigating these deportations with journalists from 22 other newsrooms in conjunction with Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based network of investigative journalists. One of the people they interviewed was Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse who had been living in the US for 30 years. During the pandemic, Kuyateh said she had spent much of the pandemic working in a US hospital caring for patients in a Covid isolation ward. Since then, she has worked as a carer for the disabled son of an American family. She was detained during a routine check-in with ICE in July 2025, spent four months in ICE custody, and was then flown to Ghana. Days later, a group of officials dragged her by her hair into a van, which transported her to Sierra Leone, the country she had originally fled with her parents. “The disabled man who Kuyateh was paid to care for was waiting for her on the day she was picked up by ICE,” Louisa says. “And when she could finally speak to her family after she was detained, one of the things she said was: please tell them I’m not coming to work tomorrow.” *** Who is behind this? The policy has been driven by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, who is often described as Trump’s “shadow president”. During Trump’s first term, Miller was behind the administration’s most extreme positions, such as the Muslim travel ban. In November 2024, before returning to the White House, he said on a conservative radio show that the coming crackdown on immigrants would be so prolific, “you’ll set your alarm clock two hours earlier every morning just to get two more hours of daylight to watch the deportation flights happen.” Since then, he’s been in overdrive. Miller has demanded that ICE agents arrest 3,000 people per day on America’s streets, and has strategised with officials from the Department of Homeland Security about how the government can reach its goal of deporting one million people in a year. He hosts daily calls with a small circle of conservative diplomats to press them on third country deportation agreements, and has been trying to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US. His influence is part of a broader strategy to subordinate the federal government’s other priorities to the singular aim of deporting migrants. The Trump administration has disbanded USAID, and repurposed funding previously dedicated to humanitarian assistance towards deportations. It has purged immigration judges deemed insufficiently loyal to this agenda, and has gutted the oversight system that investigates civil rights abuses in immigration detention. “All of these institutions that on some level could have protected refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are being turned inside out to do the opposite,” Louisa says. *** Why the Trump administration doesn’t want you to know the details Trump has made no secret of his gigantic deportation programme (it will be a “bloody story,” he said in 2024). His government has transformed immigration raids into reality entertainment, staged photo ops at migrant detention jails with names such as Deportation Depot and Alligator Alcatraz, and in 2025 arrested two firefighters while they were putting out an active wildfire in Washington State, later deporting one of them to Mexico. But it has been comparatively guarded about its third-party deportation deals. Details of the deals remain opaque, and the government doesn’t publicise most of the deportation flights. Secrecy makes it harder for lawyers to oppose deportations, since they often don’t know when flights are scheduled – or who is on them. It also contributes to a climate of fear and uncertainty for immigrants. “The message is: you are out of control of your own fate,” Louisa tells me. The countries that have struck these deals with the US may not want them to be public knowledge, and by keeping them out of the public eye, the Trump administration can also limit scrutiny of how much they cost. So far, it has pledged at least $410m (£307m) to secure these agreements. The cost of deporting a single person can run as high as $1m. “The administration seems willing to pay whatever it takes to get this done,” Louisa says. (When approached for comment, a state department spokesperson said the administration would use “all legal means” to remove those “with no right to remain in our country”.) *** From far-right conspiracy to government policy The policy is being run from the newly created Office of Remigration, which has borrowed a term used by the far-right to describe the forcible expulsion of immigrants, turning an idea once associated with the political fringes into official government policy. The idea that people who have been living in a country legally for years could be deported in the space of a few hours might sound like dystopian fiction. But as my colleague Jonathan Liew wrote in an opinion piece last year, the remigration discourse has already gone mainstream. In 2022, the UK’s then Conservative government attempted its own version of the third country deportation policy by pushing through plans to send migrants to Rwanda (the first flight was cancelled after a flurry of legal challenges). Reform has now proposed that, if it were to form a government, people who have already secured indefinite leave to remain could be suddenly deported if they don’t meet a new set of rules. And, as we reported yesterday, Nigel Farage has said he would like to “hijack” Trump’s key ICE adviser to secure the UK’s borders. “This is not just an American policy,” Louisa tells me. “This is the language of our political debate right now. And if America is doing this so flagrantly, it makes it easier for others to do the same.” We want to hear from you What do you want to know about the US midterms, and how the Guardian plans to report them? Libby will be putting your questions to our Washington bureau in the coming weeks, so send them in by hitting reply or emailing first.edition@theguardian.com. The week to come Monday | G7’s foreign ministers are set to meet in New York. Wednesday | The disgraced film tycoon Harvey Weinstein is set to face his fourth and possibly final sentencing in New York for sexually assaulting a former assistant. Thursday | US president Donald Trump is set to host Xi Jinping, China’s president, at the White House. What else we’ve been enjoying I loved this interview with Ms Rachel, the toddler whisperer extraordinaire, about being a campaigner on humanitarian issues, politics, and her new album “I’m So Happy”. Sundus Abdi, newsletters team I appreciated this analysis by David Smith on Trump’s battle to rename the Kennedy Centre after himself. On the US president’s motivations, lawyer Norm Eisen said: “You would need an authority in abnormal psychology to get the answer to that question.” Micha Frazer-Carroll, newsletters team What comforted Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe while she was imprisoned in an Iranian jail? Pizza dough, Zumba and sewing, she tells reporter Helena Horton. Sundus Sport Football | Matheus Cunha’s late equaliser gave Manchester United a 1-1 draw at Fulham, who had led through Lisandro Martínez’s farcical own goal. Cycling | Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won the men’s time trial title for the fourth time in a row, while the Swiss rider Marlen Reusser defended her women’s crown. Darts | Luke Littler has threatened to boycott tournaments in the Netherlands after being booed and whistled at during the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam. The front pages “European spy chiefs brace for Russia to test Nato pact”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Telegraph has “Labour eyes £14bn tax raid to help the poorest”, the Times says “Half Labour MPs at risk of Pip cuts backlash”, and the Express writes “Stop your tax raid on nation’s high streets”. The Mail runs with “Kemi: I’ll ditch tourist tax to boost Britain” and the i Paper has “We women are all at risk from men, warns minister amid Piddington asylum camp row”. The FT says “BigTech banks of guarantees to keep $300bn AI exposure off balance sheet”. The Mirror’s splash is “Ed: I feel so alone” and Metro writes “I back Team Harry AND Wills” Today in Focus Being trans in Britain in 2026 Transgender people in Britain are navigating a new reality. In August, new guidance – in the form of a document nearly 350 pages long – was published to help institutions interpret last year’s supreme court ruling on trans rights. It means, as Amelia outlines to Helen Pidd, that every time she goes to a pub or restaurant, she is terrified about going to the bathroom. Helen heads to parliament to hear from those protesting over the new guidance, and from senior political correspondent Peter Walker on whether there is any appetite in government to change the law. Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad For decades, hopeful entrants to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition have nurtured vibrant flowerbeds and beautiful hanging baskets across the UK’s towns. This year, the charity has launched a new award that has zhooshed up many of our train platforms. Five of the best were shortlisted for the RHS Railway Stations in Bloom competition – featuring boat-planters, pollination-friendly wildflowers and gravel gardens. The winner, the Cardross Community Organic Garden in Scotland, involved a wide range of local communities in gardening activities, from Brownies to volunteering groups. Jane Connolly, who heads the station’s gardening group, said: “Every time we are down there, somebody will come along and peruse it and say how grateful they are with what we have done … People come to our station just to see our gardens.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply







