US paid US$35 million to deport 300 to remote islands, African nations

The bulk of the money – US$32 million – went to Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Palau and eSwatini

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Shackled deportees board a plane at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on February 5. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:24am, 14 Feb 2026

The Trump administration spent more than US$35 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries they had no connection to, doling out millions of dollars in lump sum transfers to foreign governments without a system to track how the money was used, according to a report released on Friday.

The figures from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats average out to a cost of roughly US$116,666 per person deported. In Rwanda, which received seven deportees, the total cost reached about US$1.1 million per person, the report found.

The report outlines the cost of President Donald Trump’s controversial policy of sending non-citizens to countries other than their own.

The White House has argued that this method is necessary to remove undocumented criminals whose home nations would not take them.

Venezuelans deported from the United States disembark at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia on January 19. Photo: AP

Immigration groups that have challenged the practice in court have said the practice had wide-ranging effects on law-abiding non-citizens who were at risk of being sent to unfamiliar countries with little, if any, opportunity to fight it.

US paid US$35 million to deport 300 to remote islands, African nations

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The bulk of the money – US$32 million – went to Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Palau and eSwatini

The bulk of the money – US$32 million – went to Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Palau and eSwatini