The Conversation: US migrant flights to Liberia evoke troubling history of sending people deemed unwanted to the West African nation

Karen Masterson in The Conversation (US migrant flights to Liberia evoke troubling history of sending people deemed unwanted to the West African nation) offers interesting historical background to the Supreme Court’s recent decision to temporarily allow the United States to resume deporting migrants to third-country destinations:

"[T]he West African country [of Liberia] is one of 35 countries the Trump administration is paying to shelter and feed Latin Americans and others living in the U.S. without proper legal status. Some of those receiving nations have a reputation for corruption and human rights abuses, and in most cases, those being deported have no links to the host nation. . . .

So far, at least 20 U.S. deportees have been flown to Liberia. One Colombian national who arrived in the African nation on Aug. 20 told PBS: `Honestly, I had never heard of Liberia.'

While those being deported to Liberia may not be familiar with the country, the same can’t be said for American policymakers. Unlike the other countries participating in the Trump administration’s efforts, Liberia has a long history with American immigration policy.

As a scholar who has written about that history, I see echoes of past U.S. efforts to move nonwhite people to Liberia in the latest removals. Indeed, it is those past events that gave Liberia its name."