The Trump administration has spent more than $30 million to send immigrants to countries far away from their own, including in some instances, paying more than $1 million to one person, a new report by the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says.
In other cases, the report alleges, the administration paid to deport immigrants to third countries, only to pay them back to their home countries.
The report, released Friday, says the administration has signed high-cost deals for the return of “a relatively small number of third-country nationals.”
The report, led by Sen. G.N. Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provides the administration’s most comprehensive look yet at third-country deportation deals, following criticism that the government has been vague about the details of those deals.
The Trump administration has pursued the deals as part of its aggressive deportation agenda, arguing that immigrants deported to third countries are not accepted by their home countries. Frosty diplomatic relations have historically made it difficult for the US to return certain citizens to their countries of origin.
Under the agreements, countries agree — often for money, political favors, or both — to accept immigrants from the U.S. who are not citizens of those countries. Many attempts to deport these third-country nationals have faced legal challenges.
According to the report, the administration has sent or sent third-country nationals to more than 20 countries and is negotiating with dozens more.
The minority report was also signed by Sens. Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Tammy Duckworth, Jackie Rosen and Chris Van Hollen. It notes that “the total cost of the Trump administration’s third-country deportations through January 2026 is unknown but likely above $40 million.”
The deal with five governments — Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Iswatini and Palau — cost more than $32 million, with much of the money awarded “as lump sum payments, often before any third-country nationals arrive,” according to the report.
The five countries that received the million-dollar payment collectively received 300 third-country nationals from the United States alone.
The report notes that the administration often uses high-cost military aircraft to deport immigrants, even for flights with only a small number of people.
“While the Trump administration has spent more than an estimated $7.2 million on third-country deportation flights to at least ten countries through January 2026, the actual cost is likely to be much higher,” the report said.
The report said it was “based on a review of agreements through January 2026, staff travel to the countries concerned, and meetings and communications with US officials, foreign government officials, human rights organizations, deportees and lawyers.”
A Democratic committee aide said they raised many questions with the administration about the limited engagement. The aide said that although the administration had given information in some cases, the committee had not been informed about the writ petitions.
CNN has reached out to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
‘It scares people’
And “by January 2026, more than 80 percent of migrants sent to third countries for which the U.S. pays to take them have already returned to their countries of origin, or are in the process of doing so,” the report alleged.
Of the five countries that received million dollar payments of third-country nationals, El Salvador received the most deportees. About 250 were sent to that country, which received a $4.76 million grant to imprison the deportees, whom the administration accused of having ties to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua. The alleged relationship has been denied by family members and the lawsuit. CNN reported last April that the grant was “to provide funds to be used by Salvadoran law enforcement and correctional agencies for its law enforcement needs, including the costs of detaining 238 TDA members recently deported to El Salvador,” according to an internal document.
Salvadoran police officers receive alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Train de Aragua that the U.S. government recently deported to prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, as part of a deal with the Salvadoran government in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout image, March 16, 2025.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to enforce its requirement that it give Venezuelans illegally deported to El Salvador last year a chance to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act, bringing at least some back to the US for court action.
However, by January 2026, only 51 people have been sent to four other countries, the report states. Rwanda, which reportedly received $7.5 million from the U.S. government, took in only seven third-country nationals, meaning each deported national cost more than $1 million in U.S. taxpayer money, according to the report.
Palau has not received any third-country nationals, although the report says they received $7.5 million in payments from the administration. Efforts to pressure the Palau government to take in third-country nationals have been strongly pushed back by locals.
When it comes to the remote countries of Palau and Iswatini, a US official reportedly told the committee that “the point is that the administration can threaten people that they will literally be left somewhere in the middle.”
“The point is to scare people,” the official said.
According to the report, a US official told committee staff privately that the administration is “sometimes paying countries to take people, flying them there and then paying them to take them back to their country.”
In one such instance, a Mexican citizen was deported from the US to South Sudan, only to be returned to Mexico, the report says.
In another instance, a Jamaican who was court-ordered to return to his country was sent to Iswatini — at an estimated cost of more than $181,000, according to the report — then sent back to Jamaica weeks later.
The report makes the case that the administration is carrying out these deportations at a great cost to American taxpayers and is “spending political capital on its bilateral relations that could be used to undermine American national security interests.”
Lawmakers and human rights groups have expressed concern about countries making deals with the administration. Many of these countries have extensive histories of human rights abuses.
The Democratic report accused the administration of relying on assurances that deportees would be treated in accordance with international human rights law.
However, the report states that “Trump administration officials have acknowledged that countries are not following through on the assurances they have provided to the United States and that the administration has not taken steps to address these violations.”
“The administration has not provided any evidence of systematic monitoring, monitoring or implementation, expressing serious concern that these assurances remain on paper,” the report said.
Committee staff heard from U.S. officials in a country receiving third-country nationals that the administration instructed them not to follow up on the deportees’ treatment, the report says.
A November report by Human Rights Watch and the Central American rights group Cristosal alleged that dozens of Venezuelans deported from the US earlier this year were subjected to torture and other serious abuse, including sexual violence, in Salvadoran prisons.
Create an account at CNN.com for more CNN news and newsletters
