An examination of the Trump administration's efforts to deport migrants to third countries reveals significant challenges and a reliance on the agreement with Mexico. Despite numerous agreements, the program has had limited success.
On a recent April morning, Stephen Miller, a key figure in the Trump administration's immigration strategy, convened a multiagency call. The central question of the meeting was: Why were countries failing to accept a greater number of deportees from the United States? During the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, Miller, the architect of the administration's immigration agenda, oversaw a significant deportation program. According to the Department of Homeland Security , this program had resulted in the expulsion of over 675,000 undocumented immigrants from the country. While this figure fell short of the administration's ambitious goal of a million deportations annually, Homeland Security officials asserted that hundreds of thousands of others had voluntarily left the country.
In an attempt to overcome obstacles presented by nations unwilling to receive their citizens back, the administration conceived a plan to forge agreements with other countries. These agreements would obligate these countries to accept deportees, regardless of their country of origin or language proficiency. However, despite the establishment of agreements or memorandums of understanding with around two dozen countries spanning Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America, this initiative accounted for only a minuscule fraction of overall deportations. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, estimated that between January and December 2025, approximately 15,000 people were deported to third countries, with 13,000 of them being sent to Mexico. The specifics of each agreement varied, with some providing more comprehensive details, including criteria for who would be accepted.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, in a statement to CNN, stated that the Trump Administration was utilizing all available tools to execute the largest, lawful deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history. The State Department echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that implementing the administration's immigration policies was a top priority. The only country that has accepted a substantial number of deported migrants from other countries is Mexico, a practice initiated during President Joe Biden’s administration. While several countries entered into agreements, it remains unknown whether they have actually accepted any migrants. During the call, Miller, reportedly frustrated, directed his disapproval towards State Department officials, according to two U.S. officials. Despite the extensive efforts to establish arrangements with numerous countries to accept migrants from the United States, the actual removal of immigrants to those countries seemed to have stalled or never truly begun. Miller's message to the officials was unequivocal: if they couldn't accelerate the process and secure acceptance from more countries, he would personally intervene. A U.S. official described Miller as being “at his wit’s end” regarding the issue. A White House official told CNN that internal discussions revolved around collaborating with additional countries to establish third-country removal agreements. They argued that such arrangements had enabled the U.S. to remove immigrants with criminal records whose origin countries were unwilling to receive them.
The underlying impetus behind the drive to secure countries for deportees was a core component of the Trump administration's aggressive strategy to fulfill the president's campaign promise of mass deportation. The U.S. has historically encountered difficulties in deporting certain nationalities to their home countries due to strained diplomatic relations or the criminal histories of some of the citizens the U.S. sought to deport. The administration’s push to deport migrants to third countries served a dual purpose: circumventing the lack of cooperation from countries that were unwilling to collaborate with the U.S. and deterring potential migrants from entering the U.S. illegally by the prospect of being sent to an unfamiliar country far from their homes. Approximately 13,000 non-Mexican nationals were sent by the U.S. to Mexico during the first year of Trump’s term, and likely a few thousand more already this year, according to data kept by Refugees International and Human Rights First. This arrangement expanded upon a program initiated under the Biden administration in 2022, which involved expelling the growing number of Venezuelan migrants crossing the southern border at the time back to Mexico. Yael Schacher, the Americas and Europe director of Refugees International, noted that the informal agreement with Mexico continues, and that is where the vast majority of third-country nationals have actually been deported. These agreements often involve financial compensation, political favors, or both, in exchange for countries agreeing to accept immigrants from the U.S. who are not citizens of those countries. The central challenge for the Trump administration was finding nations willing to take in people the US wanted to deport, especially those from countries with which diplomatic relations were strained or those with criminal records. The initiative's modest success, primarily through the agreement with Mexico, highlights the hurdles in achieving large-scale third-country deportations
Immigration Deportation Trump Administration Third-Country Agreements Mexico Border Security Homeland Security Immigration Policy Migrants Deportees
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