DHS announced Uzbekistan third-country deportation partnership, first deal of second term

On April 30, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had partnered with the government of Uzbekistan to deport more than 100 people — citizens of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan — from the United States on a single flight to Tashkent, calling it a "landmark partnership." Uzbekistan fully funded and organized the operation itself; DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the department "commend[ed] Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for his leadership in sending a flight to return 131 illegal aliens back to their home country," describing the deal as a model for future U.S. alliances on deportation.

The Kazakh and Kyrgyz nationals aboard were expected to continue onward to their own countries after arriving in Uzbekistan; consuls from both countries met them on arrival. The operation marked the first such third-country deal struck by the second Trump administration and preceded the wave of similar agreements later reached with countries across Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. The flight departed twelve days after a federal judge issued an April 18, 2025 ruling barring the administration from rapidly deporting migrants to third countries without giving them a chance to show they feared persecution there; the administration appealed that ruling. A further six people were deported to Uzbekistan on March 10, 2026, bringing the total to 137.