The Trump administration spent more than $30 million sending migrants to countries that are not their own, including cases in which the cost exceeded $1 million per deportee, according to a new Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority report led by Ranking Member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
The 30-page report examines the administration’s use of so-called third-country deportation agreements, under which foreign governments accept migrants removed from the United States despite the individuals not being their citizens.
Lawmakers say the administration has reached agreements with or sent deportees to more than 20 countries and is pursuing dozens more arrangements.
According to the report, at least $32 million was paid to five countries — Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau — which together accepted about 300 migrants. Rwanda received $7.5 million and accepted seven people, with additional flight expenses bringing the estimated cost to more than $1 million per migrant. Palau received $7.5 million but had not accepted any deportees as of January 2026, the report states.
The report says total spending on third-country deportations through January 2026 is likely higher than $40 million when flight and operational costs are included. It estimates at least $7.2 million has been spent on deportation flights to at least ten countries, often using military aircraft for small numbers of migrants.
Committee investigators found that more than 80% of migrants sent to third countries had already returned, or were in the process of returning, to their home countries. In several cases, the U.S. paid to send migrants to a third country and later paid again to transport them to their country of origin.
The report cites examples including a Jamaican national sent to Eswatini and later flown back to Jamaica, and a Mexican national sent to South Sudan and later returned to Mexico.
The report also raises concerns about oversight of funds and treatment of deportees, stating that the State Department has not systematically monitored how payments to foreign governments are used or enforced diplomatic assurances. The findings are based on a ten-month review of agreements, travel by committee staff, and interviews with U.S. and foreign officials, attorneys and deportees, according to the lawmakers’ official press release.
Shaheen said in the release that the policy involves deporting people to countries where they have no connection “at great expense to the American taxpayer.”
“Contrary to what they might have hoped, this report only underlines much of the unprecedented work that the Trump administration has done to enforce our immigration laws. Astonishingly, some in Congress still want to go back to a time just 14 months ago when cartels had free rein to poison Americans and our border was open”
Originally published on Latin Times
