First US Third-Country Flight Lands in Jamaica: 22 Adults Under an MOU Whose Text Jamaica Says Washington Has Not Agreed to Publish

On Tuesday, the first flight under the US-Jamaica memorandum of understanding on third-country nationals landed at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. It carried 22 migrants, all adults, seven of them women. They were taken by bus under police escort to an undisclosed location, and the press was not given access.

Jamaica’s account. The Jamaican ministries of national security and of foreign affairs jointly call the program “a transit arrangement intended to facilitate the return of Third Country Nationals to their country of origin or other receiving countries.” Arrivals are capped at 25 per fortnight. A Jamaican government statement the day before the flight says the MOU lets the arrangement be suspended if 10 third-country nationals apply to remain in Jamaica through asylum or other humanitarian processes.

The text is not public. Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, asked why, wrote that “our partner has not agreed for this one to be” made public. The only account of what the US side has agreed to comes from Jamaican officials and Jamaican press.

Court context. The Supreme Court granted DHS’s stay application in DHS v. D.V.D. on Sep 29 2026 and set the case to be argued in the December 2026 session, so the district court’s February judgment does not currently bar transfers like this one. Whether a transit transfer to Jamaica falls within the class and guidance that judgment covered is not addressed in any source located for this entry.