December 24, 2025 — Timeline

Dec 24

Palau's president signed deportee MOU despite legislature's repeated objections

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. announced a Memorandum of Understanding on December 24, 2025 to accept U.S. third-country deportees in exchange for $7.5 million in aid, after Palau's Congress and Council of Chiefs had twice rejected the same proposal. The Palau Senate sued in February 2026 alleging the president lacked constitutional authority to enter what amounted to a treaty without legislative ratification, but a judge allowed implementation to proceed; the first deportee arrived in May 2026 and left after two weeks.

Denial of due process in immigration enforcement

Dec 24

United States and DR Congo signed undisclosed third-country removal agreement

The United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo reached a third-country removal agreement via diplomatic notes dated December 24, 2025, not disclosed until the State Department posted it in June 2026. Fifteen people with U.S.-granted humanitarian protections were forcibly transferred to DRC on April 17, 2026, shackled throughout a 27-hour flight and given only 24 hours' notice of their destination; a U.S. judge later found one woman's removal was likely unlawful and ordered her return.

Denial of due process in immigration enforcement

Dec 24

CIA drone strike hits dock on Venezuela's coast — first known U.S. attack on Venezuelan soil

On or about December 24, 2025, the CIA carried out a drone strike on a dock on Venezuela's coast that U.S. officials said was used by the gang Tren de Aragua to load drugs onto boats; no one was reported on the dock and no one was killed. It was the first known U.S. attack inside Venezuelan territory, a sharp escalation of the administration's pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro beyond the at-sea "drug boat" strikes. President Trump publicly claimed credit, saying the U.S. had "knocked out" a "big facility" in "the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs."