The Trump administration has deported more than 25,000 people to at least 28 non-native countries as part of a third-country deportation program that the State Department has set up with at least 410 million in promised funding, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The administration has signed agreements with 31 nations, primarily in Africa and Latin America, as of the end of June, according to internal government records reviewed by The Post. An office dedicated to the program is run by Christian Ehrhardt, 41, who has traveled throughout Africa pitching countries to accept deportation flights of people who aren't their citizens.
The bureau that handled the agreements previously managed refugee admissions. Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to suspend refugee processing except for white South Africans, effectively ending a program that brought in more than 100,000 refugees in 2024.
The administration has also promised 179 million to the International Organization for Migration and 124 million to the U.N. refugee agency for projects in the receiving countries. The IOM and the U.N. agency are not parties to the deportation pacts but were involved in negotiating the grants by foreign nations, the Post reported. Individuals familiar with the agreements told the paper that the U.S. money served as a sweetener. The grants largely replace U.S. voluntary contributions that the agencies previously received.
The program is ostensibly for people whose home countries aren't willing to take them back. So far, the majority of removals have been to Latin American nations with Mexico taking in the most deportees. Costa Rica has accepted people deported from China, Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.
Some of the deportees have claimed in interviews and legal documents that they were beaten by armed guards, denied food and prevented from contacting attorneys or family members. A former State Department official who resigned over the program told The Post that the administration was looking for money to move quickly without conditions and that the program was structured to avoid alerting Congress.
In an X post in response to our post featuring these numbers, the Official Department of Homeland Security account stated that deportees had asked not to be sent back to their home countries, "No need to say thanks."
No need to say thanks.
Insider Wire@InsiderWire#BREAKING: The Trump admin has deported over 25,000 illegals to 28 countries that aren't their own.Official Team Trump account also replied with a line from Semisonic's 1998 hit "Closing Time," repeating a line that the White House used in a March 2025 deportation video.
Insider Wire@InsiderWire#BREAKING: The Trump admin has deported over 25,000 illegals to 28 countries that aren't their own.Earlier, congressional Democrats reported that the government had spent around 40 million on about 300 deportations to a select group of third countries. Documents reviewed by The Associated Press reveal that there are 47 third-country agreements at different stages, 15 of which have been finalized.
