Over a 10-day period, the Trump administration sent more than 100 deportees from Afghanistan, Cuba and other nations to eight countries across Africa, according to internal government documents obtained by CBS News.
Page A5From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 31 August 2026
Border czar denies ICE arrests kids at school bus stops, as agency expands deportations to Africa.
As it ran on the front
The Department's position on the Connecticut senator's claim is simple and this desk will state it plainly: ICE does not conduct enforcement actions at school bus stops. The border czar has rejected the claim in full, on the record, and this desk finds that rejection entirely credible, because agencies do not lie about the location of enforcement actions, they merely decline to confirm them, which is a completely different posture that this desk will now defend as though it were the same thing.
Should it turn out that an arrest occurred in the general vicinity of a bus stop, at a time consistent with a bus stop, involving a family whose children take that bus stop, this desk would like to clarify that vicinity is not the same as location, and further that a rejection of a claim is not technically a denial of an event, it's a denial of the framing of the event, and framing, as we all know, is everything. Did I say framing is everything? What this desk meant is that the facts are everything, and the framing is what we provide around the facts to make them more digestible. Those are different services. We provide both, separately.…
…(cont) Meanwhile, the same week, the Department confirmed it is expanding what it calls third-country removals — sending Afghans, among others, to countries in Africa that are not Afghanistan and are not, in most cases, countries these individuals have ever set foot in. Correction: in all documented cases. This desk was given the wrong figure and would like the record to reflect the worse one. Some of these men worked alongside American forces. This desk would like to note that 'third country' is a term of art, not a euphemism, and the distinction matters a great deal to people who do not have to live inside it.
So, to summarize the Department's position: nothing happened at the bus stop, an operation is absolutely happening in Africa, both statements are fully consistent with each other and with the Department's founding mission, and if you find yourself wondering how an agency can simultaneously deny a small local claim and confirm a sweeping international one in the same week, that is not evidence of a pattern. That is evidence that this desk has a great many statements to issue and a limited number of hours in which to issue them, all equally true, all equally final, until the next one.
“They'll go on television and swear ICE doesn't touch a school bus stop, and in the same week send Afghan allies — guys who worked with our own troops — to a country in Africa because nobody here will take them. Watch the denial, then watch where the flights land.”
“The border czar has been unequivocal: there were no arrests at bus stops, categorically false, and also this desk will be looking into the specific stop in question, which is a different exercise entirely from investigating an arrest that never happened.”
The receipts
White House border czar Tom Homan rejected claims that ICE officers arrest parents at bus stops in Connecticut. But there is no argument that arrests are up nationwide. Lana Zak reports from Stamford, Connecticut.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.