A recent government report revealed that the United States spent more than $35 million to deport approximately 300 migrants to countries they had no connection to. The funds were sent as lump-sum payments directly to foreign governments, and the program lacked a system to track how the money was ultimately used.
The average cost came to roughly $116,666 per deportation. In some cases, the expense was far higher. For example, sending seven deportees to Rwanda cost about $1.1 million per person.
The report detailed a controversial policy of sending non-citizens to nations other than their own. The White House argued that this approach was necessary to remove undocumented individuals with criminal records whose home countries refused to accept them back. However, immigration advocates have challenged the practice in court, arguing it has wide-ranging effects on law-abiding non-citizens who risk being sent to unfamiliar countries with little opportunity to contest the decision.
According to the report, a U.S. official privately told Senate committee staff that the program was intended as an intimidation strategy and a costly deterrent aimed at pressuring migrants to drop their asylum claims. Destinations like Palau, a Pacific island nation, or Eswatini, a kingdom in southern Africa, were reportedly selected in part to signal that migrants could be sent to remote locations far from their homes.
The bulk of the money, approximately $32 million, went to five countries: Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Palau, and Eswatini. The funds were transferred directly to the foreign governments rather than through third-party partners, and the State Department is not using outside auditors to monitor the spending. Notably, Equatorial Guinea, which ranks very low on a global corruption index, received $7.5 million—more than the total American foreign assistance provided to the country over the previous eight years combined.
Specific examples highlighted the program’s reach. One Mexican national was flown more than 8,000 miles to South Sudan at an estimated cost of $91,000, which included housing at a U.S. military base along the way. He was sent back to Mexico weeks later, and officials from his home country said they were not informed of the initial deportation. In another case, a Jamaican national was sent to Eswatini at a cost of over $181,000, despite having a deportation order to Jamaica. Jamaican officials stated they had not refused his return, and the U.S. later paid to fly him home.
Separately, the administration is moving forward with a $38.3 billion plan to overhaul the U.S. immigration detention system. Officials say this sweeping expansion, known as the Detention Reengineering Initiative, will streamline operations and speed up deportations. The plan calls for acquiring and renovating eight large-scale detention centers, adding 16 processing sites, and taking control of 10 existing facilities.