The United States has reached agreements with Uganda and Costa Rica to accept migrants being deported from the US as part of expanded third-country deportation arrangements under the Trump administration.

Uganda received its first deportation flight under the new agreement, with a dozen people arriving in the East African nation. According to a senior Ugandan government official speaking to Reuters, the deported individuals will remain in Uganda as "a transition phase for potential onward transmission to other countries."

Separately, Costa Rica has agreed to receive up to 25 deported migrants per week from the United States. The Central American country is seeking closer ties with the Trump administration, which has been working to secure cooperation from multiple nations in accepting deportees who were detained by US immigration agents.

These arrangements represent part of what the administration describes as unprecedented efforts to deport individuals to countries with which they have no established ties. The deals allow the US to send migrants to third countries rather than their countries of origin.

The agreements come as the Trump administration has deployed specialized federal agents for immigration enforcement operations. A WIRED analysis of Department of Homeland Security records identified dozens of federal agents involved in what the publication characterized as the largest known deployment of its kind in US history.

Legal challenges to the third-country deportation program are expected, with critics describing the process as dehumanizing. The administration continues to seek similar agreements with other nations as it expands its immigration enforcement strategy.