❓WHAT HAPPENED: A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report revealed that the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants who could not be sent directly to their homelands to third countries.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Trump administration, the State Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and foreign governments, including Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, and El Salvador.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The investigation covers deportation practices during the second Trump administration, with payments made to countries in Africa, Central America, and other regions.
🎯IMPACT: While Senate Democrats have played up the costs totals, it is fairly comparable to the cost of illegal immigrants in the Untied Staes for American taxpayers.
A newly released report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveals that the Trump administration spent over $32 million on deporting illegal immigrants to third countries, with some costs exceeding $1 million per migrant. The report highlights payments made to foreign governments, including Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, and El Salvador, as part of third-country deportation agreements.
In one case, Rwanda received $7.5 million plus $601,864 in flight costs to accept seven migrants, equating to over $1.1 million per person. Similarly, Equatorial Guinea was paid $7.5 million to accept 29 migrants, costing taxpayers $282,126 per person. Additional payments were made to Palau, Eswatini (Swaziland), and El Salvador.
Despite the apparently high costs, the third-country deportations demonstrate to migrants who frustrate efforts to send them home that they can still be removed from the U.S., to a country not of their choosing. Notably, the investigation found that over 80 percent of illegal immigrants sent to third countries eventually returned to their home nations, suggesting that those claiming they would be in danger in their home nations were being dishonest.
While Congressional Democrats, who largely prepared the report, intended for the data to give the perception of government waste by utilizing third country deportations—or really deportations at all—the cost is comparable to the estimated cost of the illegal immigrants remaining in the United States. Research presented to Congress in 2024 by Steven A. Camarota, the Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), found that the U.S. illegal immigrant population receives around $42 billion in welfare benefits.
Additionally, CIS found that, “Based on average costs per student, the estimated 4 million children of illegal immigrants in public schools created $68.1 billion in costs in 2019.” Meanwhile, illegal immigrants account for about $7 billion in emergency services costs annually.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
.jpg){kind=link}
