Africa, Removal, & Race

Kit Johnson

04 May 2026 — 1 min read

By Maps world - Own work using a fragment of the World Map 4170 R19 Oct20. Additional modifications have been made to the used fragment of the World Map 4170 R19 Oct20 map. A fragment of the World Map 4170 R19 Oct20 map with applied modifications was used in accordance with the conditions provided on the website https://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/about.htm, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80655271

At the University of Baltimore's Spring symposium, I had the chance to hear from Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, lead counsel for Kilmar Ábrego García in Noem v. García (2025). One of the things Simon discussed was how Ábrego García is willing to accept removal to Costa Rica (and Costa Rica is willing to take him), but the U.S. government opposes this resolution in favor of removing Ábrego García to Liberia.

Why Liberia?

Well, we know that the U.S. government is already removing migrants to other African nations: Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda.

It's even been reported that the Trump Administration is in talks to send more than a thousand our Afghan allies living in the United States to the DRC. As if we haven't already treated Afghans allies like absolute crap prior to shipping them off continent.

Which brings me back to Simon, who spoke the quiet part out loud: The Trump Administration perceives removal to African nations as inherently awful because of the skin color of the majority of their citizens. Thus, removal to an African country is a punishment of migrants--a key Trump Administration ideal. And the prospect of removal to an African nation will deter would-be migrants. Win-Win.

Ugh.

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