The Trump administration has earmarked at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own. Over the past year, immigration officials have increased the practice to help achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of quickly removing immigrants from the US, the AP reported, citing the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, criticized “third-country deportations” in the report as “costly, wasteful and poorly monitored” and called for a “serious examination of a policy that now largely operates in the dark.”
Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration
The State Department, responsible for overseeing negotiations to implement the programs, has supported the practice of deportations from third countries and advocated it as part of Trump’s campaign to end illegal immigration.
“We’ve arrested people who are gang members and we’ve deported them. We don’t want gang members in our country,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said when asked about some deportations from third countries at a Senate hearing last month.
Read also | Trump ends Minnesota immigration crackdown, ‘but we’re not leaving’
Up to $7.5 million spent in five countries
The report, the first congressional review of the agreements, identified one-time payments ranging from $4.7 million to $7.5 million to five countries, including Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau, for deporting migrants to those countries.
In March of last year, El Salvador accepted approximately 250 Venezuelan nationals, while other countries accepted significantly fewer deportees, from 29 sent to Equatorial Guinea to none sent to Palau so far, the report said.
The countries examined in the report are just a small part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to deport migrants to third countries. According to internal administrative documents reviewed by the AP, there are 47 agreements with third countries in various stages of negotiation. Of these, 15 are completed and 10 are nearing completion.
Read also | The Justice Department is struggling under the weight of immigration crackdowns
Negotiations continue
According to the documents, the administration is also negotiating agreements with countries willing to accept US asylum seekers while their applications are being processed.
There are 17 agreements in various stages of negotiation, including 9 that have formally entered into force, although the administration says the agreements are not necessarily in place 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 leave deportees trapped in countries with long corrupt histories of human rights abuses.
During a visit to South Sudan, Democratic Committee staff discovered a locked house guarded by armed personnel where deportees, including migrants from Vietnam and Mexico, were being held.
Democrats also focus primarily on the waste and inefficiency of this policy. It highlights several cases where migrants are deported to a third country, only for the US to later cover the cost of another flight to send the migrant back to their home country.
“In many cases, migrants could have been returned directly to their countries of origin, avoiding unnecessary flights and additional costs,” the report quoted Shaheen as saying, also signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Tim Kaine, Jack Rosen and Chris Van Hollen.
It remains uncertain what benefits countries can gain or expect in exchange for accepting third-country nationals.
Following the deal last year, South Sudan submitted a list of demands to Washington that included US support for the prosecution of an opposition leader and the lifting of sanctions against a senior official accused of diverting more than a billion dollars in public funds, the report cited diplomatic communications released by the State Department in January.
Shaheen also questioned a $7.5 million payment sent to Equatorial Guinea that coincided with the Trump administration’s efforts to develop relations with the country’s Vice President Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang. He is accused of corruption due to a lavish lifestyle that has attracted the attention of prosecutors in several countries.