$1.1 Million Per Migrant: Democratic Report Slams ‘Exorbitant’ Cost of Third-Country Deportations

The new Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority report accuses the Trump administration of turning secretive “third-country” deportation deals into a costly, opaque pillar of U.S. foreign policy, funneling tens of millions of dollars to corrupt or abusive governments while putting migrants at risk of torture and persecution.

Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee say the administration has rapidly expanded the use of deportations to “third countries” that are not a person’s home nation, transforming what was once a rare tactic into “a standing system of global removals.”

According to the report, the United States has pressured or paid countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, South Sudan, Panama, Costa Rica, and Ghana to accept migrants with no ties to those states, often under secretive arrangements and with little notice to Congress.

The report concludes that these operations have had “no measurable impact” on the administration’s deportation agenda while imposing significant financial, diplomatic, and human rights costs on the United States.

Committee staff estimate that, as of January 31, 2026, the administration has spent more than 40 million dollars on third-country deportation operations, including at least 32 million dollars in direct payments to five foreign governments and at least 7.2 million dollars on deportation flights—many operated by U.S. military aircraft that can cost more than 32,000 dollars per flight hour.

The report says five countries that received U.S. payments to take in deportees—Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, and Palau—have collectively accepted only about 300 third-country nationals, roughly 250 of whom were Venezuelans sent to El Salvador. In Rwanda, Eswatini, and Equatorial Guinea, just 51 people arrived over seven months on flights estimated to cost 2.5 million dollars, pushing the effective cost above 1 million dollars per migrant in at least one country.

A table in the report shows that El Salvador received 4.76 million dollars in payments and roughly 428,000 dollars in flight costs for about 250 migrants, or around 20,000 dollars per person. Rwanda received 7.5 million dollars plus about 602,000 dollars in flight costs for seven people, or roughly 1.1 million dollars per person.

Eswatini received 5.1 million dollars and 1.1 million dollars in flight costs for 15 people, or about 413,000 dollars per migrant, while Equatorial Guinea received 7.5 million dollars and 682,000 dollars in flight costs for 29 people, or about 282,000 dollars per person. Palau was allocated 7.5 million dollars, but no deportation flights have yet been carried out there following domestic backlash in the Pacific island nation.

The report accuses the administration of using third-country deportations primarily as a deterrent, quoting a current U.S. official who described the system as “a scare tactic and hugely expensive deterrent meant to keep migrants from coming to the United States, intimidate them into dropping asylum claims, or encourage them to self-deport.”

Democratic staff document several cases in which migrants were flown thousands of miles to third countries only to be sent onward—often at additional U.S. expense—to their home countries weeks later. In one instance, a Jamaican man with a removal order to Jamaica was instead sent to Eswatini on a military flight that cost an estimated 906,868 dollars for five deportees, or more than 181,000 dollars per person. Jamaican officials later emphasized they had never refused to take him back, and he was eventually flown more than 7,000 miles to Jamaica on additional U.S.-funded flights.

In another case, eight men from several countries were flown to South Sudan at an estimated flight cost of 427,000 dollars and held en route at a U.S. military base in Djibouti at a cost of 307,000 dollars, or roughly 91,000 dollars per person. A Mexican national among them was later repatriated to Mexico, even though Mexican authorities and court filings indicated Mexico was willing to accept him directly.

The report also highlights incidents involving Laotian nationals. One Laotian man was deported to Rwanda after his government was given less than 24 hours to issue travel documents, with staff estimating the flight cost at more than 85,000 dollars per person. In another case, a Laotian national who already had a valid travel document for Laos was instead sent to Eswatini at an estimated cost exceeding 181,000 dollars per migrant.

“A current U.S. official privately told committee staff, ‘The Trump administration is sometimes paying the country to take people, flying them there, and then paying to take them to their home country. It doesn’t make sense,’” the report notes.

Democrats say the State Department has routed at least 32 million dollars in taxpayer funds directly to foreign governments—rather than through third-party partners—while failing to track how the money is used, whether it fuels corruption, or whether it contributes to human rights violations.

Equatorial Guinea, which ranks 172 out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index and has long been cited for severe corruption and human trafficking risks, received 7.5 million dollars to accept third-country deportees—a sum that “far exceeds” all U.S. foreign assistance to the country over the past eight years combined. As of January 2026, the country had taken in 29 people, most of whom have already been, or are slated to be, sent to their home countries despite reports that all 29 had U.S. court-ordered protections from being returned to places where they risk torture or death.

El Salvador, ranked 120 out of 182 on corruption and given a score of 0 out of 4 by Freedom House for anticorruption safeguards, received at least 4.76 million dollars tied to the detention of Venezuelan deportees. Many of those migrants were reportedly held in the country’s CECOT mega-prison, where human rights groups have documented torture, deaths, and enforced disappearances. When questioned by senators, a senior State Department nominee could not say whether U.S. funds had been used to detain Venezuelans in CECOT, telling the committee that the department relies on El Salvador’s own reporting and “is not in the business of deportations.”

South Sudan, ranked 181 out of 182 for corruption and cited by the State Department for arbitrary killings, torture, and arbitrary detention, sought sanctions relief, U.S. backing against political opponents, and potential investment in oil, gas, and minerals in exchange for accepting just eight deportees, according to documents cited in the report.

Democrats warn that the administration is “circumventing U.S. immigration law” by using third countries to do indirectly what it cannot do directly: send people with court-ordered protections back to places where they face persecution or torture.

Since September 2025, the report says, most migrants flown to third countries such as Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have had U.S. court orders barring their return to their home countries, yet many were quickly sent back after arriving in the third country. Court filings cited in the report suggest U.S. officials knew in advance that Ghanaian authorities intended to move deportees onward to their countries of origin.

In one case, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., wrote that these removals “appear to be part of a pattern and widespread effort to evade the government’s legal obligations by doing indirectly what it cannot do directly.” Another State Department declaration acknowledged that, after receiving diplomatic assurances from Ghana, the United States made “no additional efforts” to prevent onward removals that could expose migrants to persecution or torture.

The report also describes a pattern in which U.S. officials rely on paper assurances about human rights compliance while failing to monitor what happens once migrants land. In one unnamed country, U.S. personnel told Democratic staff they had been instructed by administration officials not to follow up on the treatment of deportees. In South Sudan, committee staff were reportedly the first non–South Sudanese officials ever to visit third-country deportees there.

Democrats say the deportation deals have sparked protests and political turmoil in several partner countries. In Eswatini, civil society groups and the largest opposition party publicly condemned the agreement, with one coalition calling it a “dangerous precedent” that turns poorer states into “dumping grounds for unwanted individuals,” and an opposition leader labeling it “human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal.” Legal challenges are underway in Eswatini’s courts, including a case by the Southern African Litigation Centre arguing that the accord was made without parliamentary consent.

In Palau, lawmakers rejected a U.S. proposal to receive up to 75 migrants, warning it would damage support for the United States in a strategically vital ally governed by a Compact of Free Association. Despite domestic resistance, a U.S. deputy secretary of state publicly urged Palau to accept at least a “very small number of people,” stressing that “our administration would greatly appreciate Palau’s help on this issue.”

The report further reveals that the administration’s deportation bargaining has extended to Iran, which Democrats describe as one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. The administration has reportedly struck a deal with Tehran to deport about 400 Iranians and has already sent at least three planeloads of people back, including Christian converts, ethnic and political minorities, and LGBTQI individuals who could face persecution. Media accounts cited in the report describe people begging not to be sent back, including one man who attempted suicide in U.S. custody to avoid deportation. The State Department has so far refused to brief Congress on the Iran arrangement, even as public reporting indicates the department helped initiate contact with Iran’s interests section in Washington.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats say the system of third-country deportations has become “an expensive and dangerous form of shadow diplomacy” that prioritizes the appearance of toughness over U.S. security, human rights, and fiscal responsibility. They warn that as the administration moves to strip legal status from “hundreds of thousands” of migrants by ending Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole programs, more people could find themselves sent to “far-off countries where they are not from.”

The minority members call on the Trump administration to halt its use of third-country deportation deals and pledge to continue using their oversight powers to demand transparency, enforce monitoring of funds and deportee treatment, and “restore basic standards of accountability, discipline, and responsibility” to this corner of U.S. foreign policy.