Is Liberia a dumping ground for Americans, or a place where a new generation of arrivals can build a new life?
That’s the question Liberians are asking themselves after the first people to be deported from the United States to the West African country arrived in the capital, Monrovia.
The 20 people on the plane from Louisiana were the first to be sent under a deal that could have sent up to 1,200 people to Liberia, a country of fewer than 6 million people, many of them descendants of formerly enslaved black Americans.
Liberian officials said the new arrivals came from “Africa and Western Hemisphere countries.”
Liberia is one of several countries that have agreed to take in immigrants deported from the United States under the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown. Immigrants are coming to a country whose history is deeply tied to immigration from the United States.
Almost two centuries ago, free and formerly enslaved black Americans crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in what would become Liberia (a name meaning “Land of the Free”).
Today, the country built by those immigrants is accepting people the United States wants to exclude.
For Liberians, this stirred mixed emotions in a country still recovering from a long and bloody civil war.
“This country is going through a lot and more people are coming in, but can we cope with all this?” said Feta Morris, 48, a descendant of black Americans who settled in Liberia.
But she said she saw the new arrivals through the lens of Liberian history and was struck by the contrast.
“I think of the American Liberians, the people who were denied a home and needed a place to go, and Liberia extended its arms to them,” she said.
“Back then, people needed a place where they could be freely accepted and welcomed. Now, people are being rejected by the United States, and Liberia is opening up to them.”
The first relocation is already facing complications.
Five migrants who refused to disembark after arriving in Monrovia were instead flown to Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa, where they are being held along with more than 30 other migrants previously sent there from the United States, Reuters reported.
A State Department spokesperson said implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies is a “top priority,” adding that the department typically does not comment on private diplomatic communications with other governments.
CNN has contacted the Liberian Ministry of Information for more information about the agreement and its terms.
The first group of free black Americans arrived in Liberia in the early 1820s.
Over the next few decades, the American Colonization Society helped establish settlements along the West African coast, and thousands more made the journey. The U.S. State Department says approximately 16,000 black Americans immigrated to Liberia in the 19th century.
The transition was complicated. Some black Americans saw Liberia as a chance to escape racism and build a new life, while others opposed the colonization movement and rejected the idea that free blacks should leave the United States.
Africans rescued from slave ships by the U.S. Navy were also brought to Liberia. These settlements eventually formed the Republic of Liberia, which declared independence in 1847.
The American influence is still visible today. The Liberian flag is similar to the US flag. Its capital was named Monrovia after America’s fifth president, James Monroe, and its early institutions were heavily influenced by Washington.
Konmany Wese, a former Liberian lawmaker and member of the ruling Unionist Party who was named Liberia’s ambassador to the United Nations and later ambassador to the European Union under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said history continues to shape how Liberians view the United States.
But for Wese, the arrival of the exiles raises more pressing questions. Can Liberia, a country still struggling with basic infrastructure and services, accommodate more people?
Liberia began rebuilding after a 14-year civil war ended in 2003, but Wese said the country still needed major investment. Poverty levels remain high, with youth unemployment reaching 40%, according to data from the African Development Bank.
“Our country needs tremendous support,” he said. “Medical facilities are lacking and there are problems with education.”
He questioned how the country would deal with the influx of people from abroad.
“They have to go to the same hospital. You can’t build a new hospital for them,” he said. “We don’t have any spare housing. We don’t have any existing housing to put new people in.”
Wese said Liberia’s development needs may have influenced the government’s decision, and officials hope the deal will bring support from the United States.
Liberian authorities described the arrangement as humane and said the deportees would be treated as guests who could seek asylum or leave the country.
Asked whether he saw the deal as humanitarian aid, a diplomatic agreement or an outsourcing of U.S. immigration enforcement, Wesse chose the latter.
“I think[President Donald Trump’s administration]just sees this as a place to cut people off,” he said. “They’re trying to take them off their hands and dump them in this country.”
Frances Dennis has long known that her family has roots in the migration of black Americans to Liberia in the 19th century. But just a few weeks ago, he became curious about his family’s past and began digging deeper into its history using AI genealogy tools.
The 71-year-old former president of the Liberian Chamber of Commerce and Industry told CNN that he used technology and notes left behind by his father to trace his great-grandfather to Snow Hill, a town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the United States.
He said the research also revealed the name of the ship that carried his ancestors across the Atlantic Ocean to Liberia, as well as a list of its passengers.
Several generations later, Dennis watches as another group arrives in Liberia from the United States. But he doesn’t think their situation should dictate what happens next.
“People may be worried about their new life, but it’s also an opportunity,” he says. “Some people may be happy, some may be angry, but it opens new windows, new opportunities.”
His own ancestors crossed the Atlantic many generations ago and became part of the communities that helped shape modern-day Liberia.
Now he wants those who arrived under very different circumstances to see this country as a chance for a new start.
“The ball will be in their court,” Dennis said. “Are they going to see this as a fresh start, a fresh start, an opportunity for a new life? Or are they going to look at the past?”
