In a development that shines a new light on shifting U.S. immigration enforcement practices, a Belarusian human rights organization is pushing for full transparency following emerging reports that American immigration courts have issued deportation orders sending Belarusian citizens to Belize – a move that has raised significant procedural and geopolitical questions, even as no concrete confirmation exists that the removals have been carried out.
ByAction, a grassroots human rights initiative focused on Belarusian displaced communities, confirmed it has documented two specific cases where a California immigration judge signed off on orders to remove two Belarusian nationals to the Central American nation of Belize. In a subsequent clarification, however, the group acknowledged that it currently lacks verifiable evidence proving the two individuals were actually transported to Belize following the court rulings.
Yauhen Zhdanovich, founder of ByAction, shared that the organization’s current information is limited to the basic fact of the court orders, which were issued by a judge sitting at the West Los Angeles Immigration Court. Critical details remain shrouded in uncertainty: the full identities of the Belarusian citizens involved, information about their legal representation, and even whether the pair have filed appeals against the deportation rulings have not been made publicly available.
Beyond the lack of clarity around the cases themselves, ByAction has raised pointed questions about the practical feasibility and logistics of deporting Belarusian nationals to Belize, a small Caribbean nation that has no formal established travel or deportation reciprocity agreement with either the United States or Belarus. The group is specifically questioning whether Belize has the infrastructure, policy frameworks, and willingness to accept third-country nationals from a European nation located thousands of miles outside of its traditional regional migration sphere.
These unconfirmed reports emerge against a backdrop of growing scrutiny of U.S. immigration enforcement actions targeting citizens from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc. ByAction previously documented that at least seven Belarusian citizens were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the first months of 2026, and that multiple other Belarusian nationals have been deported from the United States since the start of 2024. The organization is now calling on U.S. immigration authorities and the Belizean government to release full details about the deportation orders to address growing concerns among the Belarusian diaspora in the United States.