President Donald Trump may use military flights to deport migrants to Libya for the first time this week.
The flights could take off as soon as Wednesday, although the official schedule is still in flux, Reuters reported.
It was unclear how many migrants would be sent or which nationalities would qualify for removal to northern Africa.
When asked about the report on Wednesday in the Oval Office Trump responded: ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Homeland Security.’
The new front in Trump’s deportation war highlights the expansive purview of the White House’s efforts to send migrants in the U.S. to far-flung corners of the world.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the latest move. The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and State Department for comment.
Millions of migrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, in addition to those from South and Central America, poured across the U.S. southern border under Joe Biden.
Libya has had two major factions warring for control of the country for years.
President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly looking to deport migrants form the U.S. to Libya
llegal immigrants are seen at a detention centre in Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, on June 17, 2017
Honduran migrants arrive on a deportation flight following U.S. President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration, at the Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras January 31, 2025. Military planes, the like one shown above, have been used to facilitate removals.
Unlike El Salvador, another country the U.S. has struck a migrant prison deal with, it does not have a cutting edge prison system.
The State Department has a ‘do not travel’ notice for Americans seeking to visit Libya ‘due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict,’ according to its website.
A 2021 report from Amnesty International likened the detention centers in the north African country to a ‘hellscape’ and some detainees ‘faced torture and other ill-treatment, cruel and inhuman detention conditions, extortion and forced labor.’
‘We are working with other countries to say: We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings, will you do this as a favor to us,’ Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week.
‘And the further away from America, the better.’
The chatter of a prison deal seemed to come as a surprise to Libya itself.
The country’s Government of National Unity said Wednesday that it is not speaking with the Trump administration, adding they are against the use of their lands for U.S. deportations.
Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army, yhe other faction grappling for power of the country, also rejected the deportation proposal.
A vehicle arrives with a single detainee at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility, the facility where Venezuelans at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on deportation are held, in Anson, Texas, U.S., April 24, 2025
Guatemalan migrants arrive at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 20, 2025
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Trump shocks with plan to PAY illegal migrants as mass deportations continue
The notion of a prison deal between the U.S. and Libya, if finalized, will certainly raise alarm among Democrats.
Already they have outspokenly condemned the Trump administration for deporting migrants to Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador’s CECOT.
In the instance of Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the outrage over his removal to CECOT due to an ‘administrative error’ during his case, has prompted Democrats to fly to Central America to advocate for the man’s release.
Trump’s team has also been in contact with Rwanda to see if the country is open to receiving migrants deported from the U.S.
Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has said his country is in the ‘early stage’ of negotiations over a potential deal.
DHS announced last week that in Trump’s first 100 days over 152,000 migrants were deported, many of them to prisons in El Salvador, Cuba and Panama.
The Trump administration also announced a program that would pay migrants to self-deport.
Offering a free flight to any country of their choosing and a $1,000 cash stipend upon arrival to that country, DHS announced a program to incentivize illegal aliens to remove themselves from the country rather than wait to be deported.
DHS Sec. Kristi Noem explained the method would save money and help protect migrants and law enforcement officers.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller told reporters the plan could save up to $1 million per migrant family over time.