Democratic Report Reveals U.S. Spent $40 Million on Deporting Approximately 300 Individuals to Third Countries

The Trump administration allocated a minimum of $40 million to facilitate the deportation of approximately 300 migrants to nations other than their own. This initiative, part of a broader effort to accelerate immigrant removals from the United States, was detailed in a report by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Democrats on the committee, under the leadership of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, have criticized these third-country deportations as being “expensive, inefficient, and poorly supervised.” The report calls for an in-depth examination of this policy, which is largely implemented without transparency.

Despite the criticism, the State Department, responsible for negotiating these deportation agreements, has defended the practice as aligning with President Trump’s agenda to curb illegal immigration.

During a Senate hearing last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the importance of removing gang members from the U.S., stating, “We’ve arrested people that are members of gangs and we’ve deported them. We don’t want gang members in our country,” in response to queries about third-country deportations.

This report, marking the first congressional review of these agreements, highlighted lump-sum payments between $4.7 million and $7.5 million to five countries—Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, and Palau—for accepting deported migrants. Notably, El Salvador received about 250 Venezuelan nationals in March of the previous year, while the other countries accepted significantly fewer, ranging from 29 to Equatorial Guinea and none to Palau, as stated in the report.

The nations examined in the report are just a fraction of the Trump administration’s overall work to deport migrants to third countries. According to internal administration documents reviewed by The Associated Press, there are 47 third-country agreements at various stages of negotiation. Of those, 15 have been concluded and 10 are at or near conclusion.

The administration is also negotiating agreements with countries that will accept U.S. asylum seekers while their asylum claims are processed, according to the internal documents. There are 17 that are at various stages of negotiation, including 9 that have formally taken effect, although the administration claims that the agreements do not necessarily need to be concluded for people to be sent there.

Immigration advocacy groups have criticized the “third country” policy as a reckless tactic that violates due process rights and can strand deportees in countries with long histories of human rights violations and corruption.

During a visit to South Sudan, Democratic committee staff found a gated house with armed guards where deportees were held, including migrants from Vietnam and Mexico.

The Democrats also largely take aim at how wasteful and ineffective the policy may be. It details several instances of migrants being deported to a third country, only for the U.S. to later pay for another flight to return the migrant to their home country.

“In many cases, migrants could have been returned directly to their countries of origin, avoiding unnecessary flights and additional costs,” said Shaheen in a statement also signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Tim Kaine, Jack Rosen and Chris Van Hollen.

It also remains unclear what benefits the countries may receive – or expect – in return for accepting third-country nationals.

After an agreement was in place last year, South Sudan sent a list of requests to Washington that included American support for the prosecution of an opposition leader and sanctions relief for a senior official accused of diverting over a billion dollars in public funds, according to diplomatic communications made public by the State Department in January.

Shaheen has also questioned a $7.5 million payment sent to Equatorial Guinea that came at the same time the Trump administration was developing ties with the country’s vice president, Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang. He is notorious among world leaders accused of corruption for a lavish lifestyle that has attracted the attention of prosecutors in several countries.