Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration began negotiating agreements with African countries to dump America’s deportees at their doors, regardless of their country of origin. Trump officials were frustrated with obstacles to mass deportation and saw these deals as one way to speed up. 

Given this administration’s affinity for casual cruelty, I’m not surprised that this is happening, but I am deeply disappointed that career diplomats are facilitating it. These acts violate U.S. law, international law and basic morality. It brings up a question civil servants face every day under an increasingly abusive administration: Should you stay or should you go? 

Many of these countries are well known for horrific human rights abuses, lack of justice and abysmal detention conditions. Some are at war. The U.S. government considers three — South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR) — so dangerous that they have the worst possible travel advisory, “Level Four: Do Not Travel.” This month, the administration sent about 20 migrants to CAR, including a pro-democracy activist from Iran who had been granted legal protection by a U.S. immigration court. Men from Cuba, Myanmar and Laos who were deported to South Sudan in May 2025 remain in detention there today. I saw detention conditions in South Sudan firsthand as a U.S. diplomat and can attest that no moral country would willfully........

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