Trump administration spent $40M on third-country deportations, report says

US spent at least $40 million for third-country deportations, Democratic report says

The Trump administration spent at least $40 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries other than their own, Democratic staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported, describing the effort as an expanded “third country deportations” practice over the past year.

The report, the first congressional review of the agreements, was compiled by Democratic committee staff and led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen and other Democratic senators criticized the policy as “costly, wasteful and poorly monitored” and called for “serious scrutiny of a policy that now operates largely in the dark.”

The staff’s findings place the spending in the context of agreements the report says were implemented through negotiations overseen by the State Department. The report says lump-sum payments ranging between $4.7 million and $7.5 million were sent to five countries — Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau — to accept deportees.

According to the report, El Salvador received about 250 Venezuelan nationals in March last year, while the other nations received far fewer deportees, including 29 sent to Equatorial Guinea and none sent to Palau so far. The staff said the five countries reviewed are only a portion of the broader set of third-country arrangements being pursued.

The report also describes how the program extends beyond those five states. Based on internal administration documents reviewed by the Associated Press, the report says there are 47 third-country agreements at various stages of negotiation, with 15 concluded and 10 at or near conclusion. It also says the administration is negotiating additional agreements for countries that would accept U.S. asylum seekers while their cases are processed, describing 17 such agreements in various stages and noting that nine have formally taken effect.

In response to questions at a Senate hearing last month, the State Department defended third-country deportations as part of Trump’s stated goal of ending illegal immigration. At the hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We’ve arrested people that are members of gangs and we’ve deported them. We don’t want gang members in our country,” according to the Associated Press account of the exchange.

The Democratic report takes issue with both oversight and outcomes. It says the agreements are poorly monitored and also describes instances where migrants were deported to a third country and then later transferred again, with the U.S. paying for additional flights to return the person to their home country.

Shaheen’s statement to lawmakers, signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Tim Kaine, Jack Rosen and Chris Van Hollen, said the report found that in many cases migrants “could have been returned directly to their countries of origin, avoiding unnecessary flights and additional costs.” The report also says it remains unclear what benefits the receiving countries may receive or expect in return for accepting third-country nationals.

The report’s staff account includes a visit in which they said they found a gated house with armed guards holding deportees. The Associated Press report says the staff described migrants from Vietnam and Mexico being held there during their visit to South Sudan, adding to the senators’ criticism that the policy operates without sufficient visibility.

The report further points to diplomatic communications about requests made to Washington after an agreement was in place. It says South Sudan sent a list of requests 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, as disclosed by the State Department in January.

Shaheen has also questioned a $7.5 million payment sent to Equatorial Guinea that the report says came as the administration was developing ties with the country’s vice president, Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang, whom prosecutors in several countries have targeted in corruption cases. The Associated Press account says immigration advocacy groups have criticized third-country deportations as a tactic that can strand deportees in countries with histories of human rights violations and corruption and that they can violate due process rights.