Thousands of recent deportees from countries like Cuba and Venezuela now find themselves in Mexico and desperate for options, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
Of the nearly 13,000 non-Mexicans who have been deported to Mexico since the start of the Trump administration, more than 4,000 are Cuban — representing the largest nationality
Many of those individuals had been in the United States for decades and came to the country legally from Cuba in the 1980s or 1990s.
They often had years-old deportation orders for nonviolent crimes, Human Rights Watch's Alcira Silva Hava said. Cuba often doesn’t accept deportees from the United States, so many believed they would not be deported.
“It was only after the beginning of the second Trump administration that they were picked up by ICE, detained in inhumane conditions and deported to Mexico,” Silva Hava said.
Many of the dozens of individuals interviewed for the report in Mexico are elderly and suffer from chronic health conditions. Some are now homeless in parts of Mexico where organized crime is prevalent and separated from their families in the United States, Silva Hava said.
The terms of the United States’ and Mexico’s agreement regarding third-country deportations is not public, but Mexico has accepted the highest number of third-country deportees from the United States since January 2025.
“We are really trying to push for there to be transparency,” Silva Hava said. “Currently we don’t know anything about the arrangement between Mexico and the U.S., which is particularly concerning because of the volume.”
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