Abstract
In February 2025, a hotel in Panama became a focal point for international media when a group of several hundred asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka were suddenly sent there from the U.S. without legal recourse or notice of their destination. The majority of the migrants agreed to repatriation to their home countries, but a significant number remain, seeking to navigate an asylum system that seems intent on denying relief, with few other options available. A short time later, a similar cohort arrived in Costa Rica with an eerily familiar tale to tell. But public outcry rose to a fever pitch following the removal of nearly 300 individuals to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorism (“CECOT”), a beyond-maximum-security prison, located in El Salvador. Even more striking was that the removals occurred during court proceedings seeking to prevent the planes from taking flight, and that they relied upon the Alien Enemies Act (“AEA”), an antiquated, centuries-old law that had not been utilized since World War II. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later found that the invocation of the Act was unlawful in the circumstances, but not before months of dithering by the administration resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of people by a foreign power at the behest of the U.S. government. The case remains pending after the full Fifth Circuit reheard the matter en banc in January 2026. The eventual release of those individuals and their subsequent return to Venezuela confirmed the allegations of torture and other mistreatment that many experts expected were occurring in the prison.
Recommended Citation
Matthew Boaz,
The Odyssey of Third Country Removal,
70
St. Louis U. L.J.
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol70/iss4/6