The United States deported more than 25,000 people under secret agreements with 35 countries to receive migrants who have no ties to those nations, according to an investigation published Monday. Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the United States has signed agreements with developing countries to accept migrants who cannot legally be sent back to their countries of origin.
The investigation by the nonprofit organization Forbidden Stories revealed that the government allocated $410 million to be paid directly to receiving countries or to United Nations agencies to facilitate the deportations. At least 25,447 people were deported to third countries through August 31, 2026, according to data compiled by Forbidden Stories together with a consortium of international journalists.
The vast majority, about 20,000, were sent to Mexico, while the rest were distributed among 27 other countries in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific. Agreements were also finalized with seven additional countries. The agreements vary, including which nationalities may be deported and whether people with criminal records can be accepted.
Legal limbo
An investigation published earlier this year revealed that Washington has been using visa bans and restrictions against African countries to pressure them into accepting deportees. Lawyers said that deportees were being placed in a “legal limbo,” detained without charges in countries with which they have no ties and where they have few rights, if any.
Forbidden Stories reported that 49 of Africa’s 54 countries had been contacted to determine whether they would accept deportees from third countries. A little-known division of the State Department, the Office of Remigration, created in May 2025, handled most of the negotiations and payments, according to the same source.
The office is headed by Christian Jove Ehrhardt, a 41-year-old diplomat who previously worked as a security officer. The report details his visits to Cameroon, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States in December to accept deportees. One week later, it also signed a five-year health assistance program worth nearly $400 million.
The following month, the State Department said it would provide another $30 million to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in Cameroon to “facilitate the voluntary return of refugees and combat illegal immigration.” The first plane carrying deportees arrived in Cameroon on January 14.
Payments
Other agreements include direct payments to governments. Palau, a small Pacific island nation with a population of fewer than 18,000 people, signed an agreement in December 2025 to accept up to 75 third-country nationals in exchange for $7.5 million. So far, however, only three people have been sent under the agreement.
In Eswatini, 32 people have arrived since July 2025, out of a potential total of 160 contemplated under an agreement worth more than $5 million. According to the investigation, the country agreed to accept deportees with criminal records.
Of the $410 million budgeted for the agreements, internal State Department documents showed that $81 million was intended for the governments that signed them. The remainder was earmarked for aid organizations, including more than $178 million for the UN’s International Organization for Migration, or IOM, and $123 million for UNHCR.
The agencies have faced criticism over their involvement, although UNHCR told Forbidden Stories that it was not a party to the bilateral agreements and that U.S. funding was being used in accordance with its mandate to strengthen asylum systems. An IOM spokesperson told Forbidden Stories that the agency’s decisions to accept funding were based “on a single question: whether our involvement will improve the lives of the migrants affected. In these cases, we firmly believe that it will.”
