U.S. spending millions to send migrants to third countries, report says

"The Trump administration spent more than $40 million last year to send hundreds of migrants to at least two-dozen countries that are not their own, a tactic Senate Democrats described in a report Friday as a costly strategy aimed at sowing fear and intimidation in the president's mass deportation campaign. The 30-page analysis from the minority members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accuses the administration of entering into opaque financial agreements with foreign governments - including some with poor records on corruption and human rights - to rapidly expand a program for "third country" removals that once had been reserved for exceptional circumstances."

"Its authors contend that the State Department has failed to conduct sufficient oversight to ensure that payments to those countries are not being misspent and that migrants transferred to their custody are not being abused or mistreated. The administration "has expanded and institutionalized a system in which the United States urges or coerces countries to accept migrants who are not their citizens, often through arrangements that are costly, inefficient and poorly monitored," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), the top Democrat on the committee, wrote in a letter to colleagues. "Deporting migrants to countries they have no connection to ... has become a routine instrument of diplomacy.""

"Administration officials have said they have no choice but to partner with foreign governments that are willing to accept undocumented immigrants whose native nations are not willing to take them back. In most cases, the migrants have criminal records, authorities said, though public records have shown that some have not been convicted of crimes in the United States."

More than $40 million was used to transfer hundreds of migrants to at least two-dozen countries that are not their own. Opaque financial agreements with foreign governments, some with poor corruption and human rights records, were used to expand third-country removals beyond prior exceptional use. The State Department is reported to have provided insufficient oversight of payments and the treatment of migrants transferred to foreign custody. Officials justify partnerships by pointing to foreign willingness to accept migrants, noting many have criminal records while acknowledging some transferred individuals lack U.S. convictions.

Read at The Washington Post