The $30 million toe in the water

The Trump administration's deals with African and Latin American nations to take third-country deportees have been widely criticized, with the Central African Republic being one of the countries agreeing to take deportees.

The country is plagued by conflict and is one of the poorest in the world, with at least one in three people living on less than $2 a day.

At least one person is dead and 11 are injured after a gunman opened fire in Midland, Texas.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

The Central African Republic has been plagued by years of conflict between pro-government forces and armed groups, and is one of the countries where Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, was first active in Africa.

The group has been responsible for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra's security and fighting rebel groups.

The country is one of Russia's closest allies in Africa , despite recent tensions between Touadéra and Russia after Moscow demanded Wagner be replaced with the Africa Corps operated by the Russian government.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

Under a series of often-secret agreements,the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own,advocates say.

The Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries, immigration lawyers said.

Among those set to be deported Thursday were people from Iran, Jordan, Armenia, Turkey , Georgia and Afghanistan, according to Ali Rahnama, the head of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, who has been in touch with some of the migrants.

What auditors flagged in the May filing

Three Iranian women in the U.S. were originally scheduled to be sent to Central African Republic, according to Sahar Jalili Pawelski, one of their immigration lawyers, who said two of them received emergency court orders temporarily stopping their deportation while judges reviewed whether the government was acting legally.

All three had been granted court protection against deportation to Iran after judges ruled they faced credible fears of persecution on the basis of politics or religion, Jalili Pawelski and Rahnama both said.

An elderly Syrian man also was set to be deported to the Central African Republic but received an emergency temporary order halting his deportation, his lawyer Margaret Stock said.

A familiar pattern from the 2019 crash

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday would not comment on the case, saying it would not confirm future removal operations for security reasons.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respoond to requests for comment.