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TPRN Ecosystem Map

Third-Country Deportation Response Ecosystem — Gap Analysis
TPRN Concept Note — Ecosystem Analysis — February 2026

Who’s Doing What — and Where Nobody Is

Mapping the fragmented landscape of third-country deportation tracking, legal response, advocacy, and humanitarian action. The deportation pipeline runs from San Diego courthouses to 26+ destination countries. Existing organizations cover fragments. No entity connects the full chain.

Tracking / Data
Legal Response
Advocacy / Policy
Humanitarian
Media / Documentation
Critical Gap
TPRN Fills
🏛️

Community / Courthouse

Arrests at courthouses, homes, workplaces. San Diego origin point. People disappear from Schwartz Federal Building hallways.

🔒

Detention / Transfer

Otay Mesa → staging facilities → Alexandria, LA hub. 7,362 domestic shuffle flights since Jan 2025. People held incommunicado.

✈️

Deportation Flight

Military & charter aircraft. Shackled at wrists, waist, ankles. 30-40 hour flights. Deportees don’t know destination until airborne.

🚨

Third-Country Arrival

26+ destination countries. Immediate arbitrary detention. No reception infrastructure. Coerced “voluntary” return. 47 agreements in progress.

Onward / Refoulement

Chain-refoulement to country of origin. 80%+ already returned home. No monitoring. Press suppressed. Protection orders void in practice.

Tracking / Data

ICE Flight Monitor (Human Rights First)

Uses aviation data to track deportation and domestic transfer flights. Pioneered by Tom Cartwright. Monthly reports. 1,912 removal flights to 79 countries documented since Jan 2025.
community detention flights arrival onward
Stops at tarmac. No post-arrival monitoring.
Advocacy / Policy

Third Country Deportation Watch (HRF + RI)

Joint tracker launched Dec 2025. Country-by-country profiles for 26+ nations. Maps agreements, terms, payments, harms. Resources for attorneys, journalists, policymakers.
community detention flights arrival onward
Information resource. Not operational response.
Advocacy / Policy

Senate SFRC Minority Report

“At What Cost?” Feb 2026. First congressional report. $40M+ spent, 47 agreements, compliance failures, officials told not to follow up. 30-page investigative document.
community detention flights arrival onward
Congressional oversight. No field presence.
Advocacy / Policy

USCRI Tracker

Legal and policy analysis of third-country deportation schemes. Strong on international refugee law (Convention Against Torture, Refugee Convention). Analytical framework.
community detention flights arrival onward
Analytical. No operational capacity.
Legal Response

Justice in Motion — Defender Network

On-the-ground human rights defenders in MX, GT, ES, HN, NI. Post-deportation intake form. Legal screening and referral. Closest analog to one TPRN component.
community detention flights arrival onward
Latin America only. No Africa/Asia/Pacific coverage. Case-by-case, not systemic.
Legal Response

Post-Deportation Human Rights Project (BC)

Boston College. Pioneered “post-deportation rights” as legal field. Foundational scholarship. No longer conducting intake or taking new cases. Effectively dormant.
community detention flights arrival onward
Dormant. Conceptual only.
Humanitarian / Community Support

AFSC — Crossing South / San Diego

American Friends Service Committee. “Crossing South” program provides pre-departure preparation guides for deportees and families returning to Mexico. Pedro Rios and SD office support community volunteers, NGOs, and provide expertise. Referral networks in Tijuana, Tapachula, San Cristóbal, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Indirect services in Mexico through partner orgs.
community detention flights arrival onward
Mexico only. Pre-departure + referral, not direct reception. Not third-country destinations.
Humanitarian

Casa del Migrante / Scalabrinians

Reception infrastructure in Mexico. Shelters, basic services. Oriented toward northbound migrants. Some deportee services but not primary mission.
community detention flights arrival onward
Mexico/Central America. Northbound-oriented. Not designed for deportees.
Humanitarian

UNHCR / IOM (at destinations)

Present in most destination countries. Spoke to Cameroon deportees about asylum. Operating within existing mandates. Reactive, not coordinated with U.S. pipeline.
community detention flights arrival onward
Reactive mandates. Not connected to U.S. enforcement intelligence.
Legal Response

Novo Legal Group / Destination Lawyers

Alma David (US-based), Joseph Awah Fru (Cameroon-based) — representing Cameroon deportees. Ad hoc, emerged from crisis. No pre-positioned infrastructure.
community detention flights arrival onward
Reactive. Crisis-specific. Not networked.
Media / Documentation

AP / NYT / BBC Investigations

NYT broke Cameroon story (Feb 14). AP freelancers arrested at Yaoundé compound. BBC freelancer Sa’ah. Episodic, not sustained monitoring.
community detention flights arrival onward
Journalists arrested, equipment confiscated. Press suppressed at destination.
Media / Documentation

CPJ / RSF

Press freedom monitoring. RSF: Cameroon “one of most dangerous in Africa for journalists.” CPJ: 4 journalists currently imprisoned in Cameroon. Document but don’t intervene operationally.
community detention flights arrival onward
Monitoring + advocacy. Not humanitarian response.
01

No DRM Framework

Every existing org uses legal, advocacy, or human rights frameworks. Nobody applies disaster risk management — early warning, anticipatory action, multi-hazard analysis, resilience capacities — to the deportation system. The DRM lens is absent from this space entirely.

02

No Origin-to-Destination Link

ICE Flight Monitor tracks planes. Justice in Motion follows cases in Latin America. HRW documents post-arrival. Nobody has built the integrated system connecting community-level enforcement detection → detention tracking → destination response.

03

No Humanitarian Needs Assessment

47 agreements in progress, 26+ active destinations. No entity has conducted or proposed a systematic rapid needs assessment across deportation destinations — the kind OCHA or ACAPS would deploy for a natural disaster.

04

No Resilience / Social Capital Analysis

Nobody is using bonding/bridging/linking capital, absorptive/adaptive/transformative capacity, or peacebuilding-resilience nexus frameworks. The academic DRM contribution is entirely unoccupied.

05

No Africa/Pacific Coverage

Justice in Motion covers MX, GT, ES, HN, NI. No equivalent network exists for Cameroon, Rwanda, South Sudan, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Palau, Uzbekistan, or the dozens of new destinations being negotiated.

06

Info Flow Suppression Unaddressed

Cameroon arrested journalists + confiscated equipment. Governments deny deportees are on flights. U.S. officials told “not to follow up.” No framework addresses this information suppression as a protection hazard.

NODE 01

San Diego Origin — Early Warning & Anticipatory Action

Community-based enforcement detection at courthouses, homes, workplaces. Anticipatory legal intervention. 26 successful habeas petitions as proof of concept. Communication restoration for families.

ICE Flight Monitor data, AFSC community support infrastructure, courthouse observation networks
NODE 02

Detention Interior — Pipeline Tracking & Legal Intercept

Integrated tracking connecting arrest → detention → transfer → flight. Pre-positioned legal teams for emergency challenges. 6-hour ICE Lyons memo notice window. Connect data from Flight Monitor to legal response.

Third Country Deportation Watch intel, USCRI legal frameworks, flight data
NODE 03

Destinations — Response, Recovery, Resilience

Rapid needs assessment across ALL destinations (not just Latin America). Reception capacity. Documentation support. Livelihood/reintegration. Advocacy against refoulement. Expand JiM model to Africa/Pacific.

Justice in Motion Defender Network model, UNHCR/IOM mandates, Senate SFRC data
Community / Courthouse Detention / Transfer Deportation Flight Third-Country Arrival Onward / Refoulement DRM Framework Africa / Pacific Info Suppression
ICE Flight Monitor
3rd Country Deport. Watch
Senate SFRC Report
Justice in Motion
AFSC (Crossing South / SD)
UNHCR / IOM
AP / NYT / BBC
CPJ / RSF
TPRN (Proposed)

● = PRIMARY COVERAGE    ◐ = PARTIAL / SECONDARY    — = NO COVERAGE    ● = TPRN FILLS