He Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of

About this episode

<p>In its efforts to deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, the Trump administration has increasingly relied on a highly controversial strategy: deporting people to countries they have no connection to.</p><p>Last week, a federal court ruled the practice to be illegal because it violated people’s right to due process. The administration challenged that ruling, and now it is in front of the Supreme Court.</p><p>Nicholas Casey tells the story of Roberto Mosquera, who moved to the United States from Cuba as a child. He has been held in the small country of Eswatini since July 2025.</p><p>Guest: <strong>Nicholas Casey</strong>, a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine who writes about geopolitics.</p><p>Background reading:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>He was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/magazine/deportation-immigrants-prison-eswatini.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deported to a country he’d never heard of.</a> He may never go free.</li><li>How do you <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/insider/interview-deportees-eswatini-africa-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview a deportee</a> being held inside a maximum-security prison?</li></ul><p>Photo: Moises Saman/Magnum, for The New York Times</p> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>