New Report: At What Cost? Inside the Trump Administration’s Secret Deportation Deals
A new Congressional report from the Committee on Foreign Relations examines third-country deportations under the Trump administration, “At What Cost? Inside the Trump Administration’s Secret Deportation Deals.”
A full copy of the report is available here.
The Executive Summary summarizes the report's six important findings:
Expensive and Ineffective Operations: The Administration has spent tens of millions of dollars to move a relatively small number of migrants to third countries, in some cases paying more than one million dollars per person, with little measurable impact on its deportation agenda.
Needlessly Wasting Taxpayer Funds: In many cases, migrants could have been returned directly to their home countries, avoiding costly third country deportations. As of January 2026, more than eighty percent of the migrants sent to third countries paid by the United States to take them in have already returned to their country of origin or are in the process of doing so. In some cases, the U.S. paid to fly migrants to third countries only to later pay again for them to fly to their home country.
Providing Money to Corrupt Governments Without Oversight: The United States has sent more than thirty-two million dollars to foreign governments in direct connection with third country deportation deals, including those with records of corruption, human rights abuses and human trafficking, without monitoring how the money is used or whether taxpayer funds are being used to facilitate corruption, human rights abuses or human trafficking. It is unclear how much additional U.S. funding is being redirected to indirectly support these deals.
Failure to Monitor and Enforce Agreements: The State Department is not tracking foreign government compliance with diplomatic assurances or enforcing agreement terms, even where evidence suggests foreign governments are violating their commitments. In at least one country, U.S. officials told Committee staff that they were instructed by the Trump Administration officials to not follow up on how deportees were being treated.
Secret Deals That Do Not Serve American Interests: Third country deportation agreements have become a central feature of U.S. bilateral relations, involving cash payments, political concessions and coercion, without transparency about the full extent of what the United States is giving in return or the pressures it is exerting. In addition, the Administration is making secret deals with adversarial regimes such as Iran, to accept their nationals back.
Circumventing U.S. Immigration Law: Evidence suggests the Administration is using third countries to carry out removals that U.S. law would otherwise prohibit, such as sending protected individuals onward to countries where they may face persecution or death.
