The Trump administration has signed multimillion-dollar agreements with foreign countries to take in deportees.
Published April 21, 2026
The South American nation of Paraguay has announced it will take in noncitizens expelled from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive.
Paraguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement Tuesday that it will receive the first group of 25 Spanish-speaking deportees starting Thursday.
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“Each case was evaluated individually, with full respect for national sovereignty, immigration law and international law,” the statement said.
Paraguay is one of the latest in a growing list of countries to participate in “third country” deportations from the United States. Such third-country agreements open the door for the United States to send immigrants to countries with which it has no ties.
The Trump administration has approached dozens of countries to participate, despite concerns about human rights conditions in some potential sites.
Countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and South Sudan have hosted such deportees, in some cases signing multimillion-dollar contracts to host and imprison deportees.
The plan is part of an aggressive effort under the Trump administration to restrict immigration to the United States.
As of February, U.S. Democratic lawmakers estimated that more than $40 million had been paid out in foreign contracts to incentivize deportees.
Robert Alter, an official at the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay, praised the agreement in a statement, calling it a testament to the close relationship between the United States and Paraguay.
He also sought to dispel concerns about the legality of the deportations.
“These immigrants have no pending asylum claims in the United States,” the statement said. “The aim of this cooperation is to facilitate the safe and orderly return of these people to their countries of origin.”
Advocacy groups have accused the Trump administration of using the threat of deportation to third countries as an intimidation tactic.
In the high-profile case of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration has publicly advocated deporting the Salvadoran man to the African country, despite Abrego Garcia’s willingness to go to Costa Rica and Costa Rica’s promise to accept him.
Critics say some third-country destinations are unstable. South Sudan, for example, faces one of the world’s largest displacement crises, and continued fighting risks pushing the country into full-scale war.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, another third country, conflict continues to simmer between government forces and Rwandan-backed rebels.
A group of 15 deportees from South American countries were sent from the United States to the Democratic Republic of Congo last week, despite the US State Department warning of “social unrest” in the region.
Some third-party countries are also facing domestic opposition to their agreements with the Trump administration.
For example, the Law Society of Uganda and the East African Law Society have pledged to challenge deportations to local third countries following the arrival of more than a dozen deportees from the United States earlier this month.
They argued that deportation is a “degrading, cruel and dehumanizing process” that reflects a system of “transnational oppression.”
The Associated Press previously reported that the Trump administration is seeking similar agreements with 47 more countries.
