Costa Rica received its first group of migrants deported from the United States on Saturday under a new third-country agreement signed in March, marking the start of a policy that allows Washington to send some non-Costa Rican deportees to the country instead of returning them directly to their homelands. The first group included 25 people.
The migrants came from Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, and Morocco. Costa Rica’s government had already said the arrangement could allow for the arrival of up to 25 deportees per week, though the country reserves the right to accept or reject individual cases.
Under the agreement, the migrants are to be processed under Costa Rican migration law with temporary humanitarian protection while officials work on the next step in each case. U.S. funding is expected to cover the program, while the International Organization for Migration is set to provide basic support including food, lodging, and other assistance during the first week of their stay. Costa Rican officials have also said the country would not send people to places where they could face persecution.
The deal deepens Costa Rica’s cooperation with the Trump administration’s expanded use of third-country deportations, a policy that has drawn attention across the region. The agreement was announced in late March after meetings between Costa Rican officials and U.S. representatives, and it was framed in San José as part of a broader migration and security relationship with Washington.
The move is also likely to revive debate inside Costa Rica because the country already faced scrutiny in 2025 after accepting up to 200 migrants deported by the United States. That earlier operation led to criticism over conditions for migrants housed near the Panamanian border, and later forced the government to grant special migratory status to 85 people who remained in the country after repatriation efforts stalled.
Human rights groups and critics in the United States and Costa Rica have argued that third-country deportation deals can leave migrants stranded in unfamiliar countries, far from family networks and often without language support. Supporters of the policy say it gives governments another tool to manage deportations when countries of origin are unwilling or slow to receive their nationals. For Costa Rica, the arrival of this first group means a controversial agreement is now no longer theoretical but active on the ground.
