Costa Rica Court Orders Release of People Deported There by USA

A court in Costa Rica ordered the release of foreigners who have been detained since they were deported there by the USA in February 2025.

About 200 people, 80 of them children, were sent there instead of to their countries of origin which included Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and various countries in Africa and Asia. They were put in the Temporary Migrant Care center (CATEM) on the Panamanian border 220 miles south of San José.

Some agreed to be sent back to their countries of origin. About 28 are still in CATEM, of whom 13 are children. In April they began to be allowed to come and go from CATEM, but they have remained tethered to the detention facility.

The constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice resolved their habeas corpus petition today. It set a time window of 15 days for immigration authorities to complete “determination of the immigration status of the deportees” and release them. Authorities must also “determine what type of health, education, housing and general social assistance they require from the State.”

The court’s decision was issued one day before a scheduled meeting between USA Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and President Rodrigo Chaves in Costa Rica. Noem is also scheduled to tour CATEM.

Costa Rica is not the only country to which Trump has sent “third country” deportees, who are immigrants shipped out to a country other than their country of origin. Panama received 300 who were mostly Asian. El Salvador received 252 Venezuelans who were accused of involvement with the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, for which there was no evidence. El Salvador put them in its notorious CECOT megaprison.

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