Report
Published on October 9, 2026
Under the second Trump administration, the U.S. government has carried out a systematic effort to detain and deport people who were granted refugee and torture protection in the United States. Because these individuals were granted withholding of removal or Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection by U.S. immigration judges, the United States is prohibited from deporting them to their countries of origin. Despite the court-ordered grants of protection from refoulement, the U.S. government forcibly transports people to third countries where they do not have nationality, status, or any ties. There, it delivers them to foreign governments in countries they have never known, where they may suffer arbitrary detention, separation from their children and other loved ones, forced return to their countries of origin, and other abuses.
The administration’s targeting of people granted refugee or torture protection weaponizes the deficiencies of the modern U.S. protection system against people, many of whom would in the past have been granted the full protections of asylum. Many people are granted withholding of removal or CAT protection—which prevents their refoulement to their countries of origin—not because they have a less valid claim for protection but because of eligibility bars to asylum unrelated to the merits of their claims. A host of barriers and bars imposed on asylum in recent years and decades, under Republican and Democratic administrations, have disqualified countless people with strong refugee claims from being granted asylum for reasons unrelated to the substance of their protection claims. Like asylees, people who win withholding are recognized as refugees under U.S. and international law. They have proved to a judge that they are more likely than not to be persecuted in their country of origin—which is in fact a higher standard of proof than is required for asylum. Those awarded CAT protection have also met a higher burden than required for asylum, proving that they are more likely than not to be tortured in their country of origin.
Prior to this administration, people who were granted withholding or CAT protection were largely able to live the rest of their lives in the United States and find a semblance of safety and peace after fleeing harm and overcoming stringent requirements to prove their case to an immigration judge. However, these protections are limited compared to asylum, as they do not themselves provide a path to family reunification or citizenship. Recipients of these protections have long faced barriers to integration in the United States due to the significant limitations of these protections. The impact of these limitations has become much more widespread due to rules limiting asylum eligibility introduced in recent years, which have dramatically increased the number of people barred from asylum and granted lesser protections. Over 53,000 people have been granted withholding and CAT protections in the United States over the past nearly three decades.
The immigration statute places withholding of removal and CAT protections under the section of the statute governing removal orders, which includes provisions on removal to third countries. Since 2008, the Board of Immigration Appeals has held that a grant of withholding of removal must be accompanied by an order of removal. This report documents the Trump administration’s weaponization of this part of the statute to carry out mass human rights violations and terrorize people granted these protections, and others who might seek them, in violation of U.S. law. It provides an overview on withholding of removal and CAT protections, documents the systematic effort to target refugees and people who fled torture to deport them, and details mass torment and suffering in U.S. detention and family separation.
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