The result is a rapidly expanding third-country deportation network designed to deal with one of Washington’s most stubborn immigration problems: migrants who cannot easily be returned to their countries of citizenship.
A Deportation Network Spanning the Globe
The Post reports that more than 25,000 people have been removed from the United States to at least 28 third countries during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The overwhelming majority — roughly 20,000 — were sent to Mexico. Thousands of others have been transported to countries across Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.
The destinations have included nations such as Panama, Costa Rica and Eswatini, sometimes involving migrants who had no previous connection to the country receiving them.
The administration says the policy provides another option when someone’s home government refuses to accept its citizens or when other legal obstacles prevent removal to a particular destination.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Post that the people being sent to third countries include those whose governments will not accept them and people with removal orders who have requested not to return to their home countries.
That makes the diplomatic component crucial.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s department has helped transform negotiations with foreign governments into an important part of Trump’s broader immigration enforcement strategy.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau has also played a prominent role in negotiations with governments willing to participate.
The operation is being administered through the State Department’s Office of Remigration, which the Post reported has roughly 15 employees.
$410 Million Behind the Effort
The financial scale is significant.
Internal records reviewed by the Post showed that at least $410 million had been authorized or pledged as of the end of June to facilitate arrangements involving 31 countries.
That money can support agreements and programs connected to governments willing to receive third-country deportees.
The Post described the program critically, highlighting complaints from migrants, immigration attorneys and former government officials about conditions deportees may encounter after being sent abroad.
Immigration advocates have also argued that third-country removals can put migrants at risk and may deny some people adequate opportunities to raise claims that they could face persecution or mistreatment.
Those legal concerns are significant because the administration’s third-country policy has continued facing challenges in federal court.
But supporters of tougher immigration enforcement see the system differently.
They argue that foreign governments should not be able to effectively prevent deportations simply by refusing to cooperate with Washington.
Deep inside the Post’s lengthy investigation came a defense of the strategy from Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“There is no doubt that people are removed to third countries and then end up going back to their own country anyway, and that’s because their gambit failed” to remain in the United States, Krikorian said.
He continued:
“This is a way to remove people who should be removed. The country of citizenship is responsible for their own citizens. I’m not saying it’s a great outcome for folks, but that’s the way it is.”
The State Department’s Mission Has Changed
Perhaps the biggest story is what happened inside the State Department itself.
The bureau overseeing the Office of Remigration historically focused heavily on refugees and humanitarian assistance.
Under Trump, its mission has shifted dramatically toward implementing the administration’s immigration agenda.
Andrew Veprek, who oversees the remigration operation, described that transformation publicly.
“We have changed the orientation of the bureau completely,” Veprek said.
He explained that the bureau previously focused on humanitarian assistance and bringing refugees into the United States.
“Now, we are focused on implementing the president’s immigration agenda.”
Some career officials have reportedly struggled with that transformation.
One former employee told the Post that staff members shared news stories about deportees through encrypted messaging applications and sometimes warned colleagues that the reports would “make you feel awful.”
“Everybody feels pretty conflicted,” the former staffer said. “Morale is bad and it’s busy, and people do not want to be doing what they’re doing. It was a very painful thing.”
A Massive International Investigation
The Post’s reporting was part of The Deportation Project, a six-month investigation organized by Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories and involving two dozen-plus media organizations across 15 countries.
Forbidden Stories itself receives philanthropic support. Ford Foundation records, for example, show a $1.2 million general-support BUILD grant to the organization approved in May 2025.
Whatever one’s view of the consortium’s framing, the numbers uncovered by the investigation reveal how dramatically the machinery of immigration enforcement has changed.
This is no longer simply a question of whether a migrant’s home government will cooperate.
The administration is trying to create alternatives around that obstacle.
More than 25,000 third-country removals have already occurred, according to the Post’s analysis, while agreements and funding involving dozens of governments could provide additional destinations in the future.
That gives the Trump administration an enforcement option previous administrations used far less aggressively — and ensures the legal and political battle over third-country deportations is far from finished.
