The Trump administration is hiring a decades-old U.N. migration agency to help illegal migrants self-deport to their home country.
The administration has contracted with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN-sponsored agency founded n 1951 to help people spread around the world return to their homes in the aftermath of WWII. The IOM will provide structure to Trump’s self-deportation policy and give migrants advice and assistance in their journeys back to their country, the Washington Post reported.
“In the United States, many migrants face a challenging reality — navigating complex systems with limited options and resources,” IOM said in a statement reported by the Post. “This initiative provides support to those who choose to return, helping them make a life-changing decision with care and clarity.”
Trump is offering migrants a $1,000 payment to entice them to self-deport, but is also warning of a hefty $998 per day fine if they decide to ignore the offer and remain in the U.S. It is also being reported that Trump officials are allowing self-deporters to take their U.S. earnings with them and will put them on a list that allows them the opportunity to immigrate legally into the U.S. in the future as opposed to those who are forcibly deported and who are placed on a list blocking future legal access.
More than 1,000 migrants have already agreed to enter the self-deportation process for the $1,000 payout, and the Trump administration hopes this number will substantially increase now that they are working with their “implementing partner” in the form of the IOM.
While the IOM has helped more than 1.5 million people migrate back to their home countries, the organization has never before worked with migrants looking to leave the United States, even though the U.S. has been the biggest source of funding for the agency.
IOM also noted that it has no role in deportations. “Our role is to ensure that those who lack the means to return on their own can do so in a safe, dignified, and informed way,” the agency explained. “IOM does not facilitate or implement deportations.”
Nonetheless, advocates for illegal aliens are advising people not to engage with IOM for fear the independent, UN-affiliated organization will somehow give migrants “biased” information.
“I am deeply concerned that this administration is going to present biased information to people,” Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the paper.
Self-deportation is also not favored by many locales outside the U.S. As Bloomberg recently reported, many small towns in other countries thrive off the money illegals send back home earned by working illegally in the U.S. That money, termed “remittances,” can often serve as a sort of “foreign aid,” as if the U.S. was sending American dollars directly to family members living there.
Remittances from migrants living in the U.S. sent to other countries is one of the largest amounts of cash flowing out of our country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2023 alone, foreign-born people in the U.S. sent $85.8 billion U.S. dollars back to their home countries.
The case of Nicaragua is instructive. A recent report revealed that the amount of U.S. dollars sent back home by migrants is the chief source of income propping Nicaragua up, as $5.243 billion sent from the U.S. flowed into the Central American country.
This is money lost to America. Money that is not spent in our stores, money that is not geared toward growing our economy, and money that does not benefit our country at all.
The town of Governador Valadares, Brazil, is another locale impacted by Trump’s migrant crackdown. The town has built an industry out of being a nexus for locals gathering to prepare to migrate to the U.S. But now it finds one of its chief industries slowing down to a crawl as migrants begin turning away from attempting to get to the United States, leaving the region’s migration industry with far fewer customers, both legal and illegal.
Governador Valadares is also finding itself turned into a new and unwelcome nexus as flights from the U.S. are bringing back Brazilians who have been deported by the Trump administration. Not only are people returning home, the U.S. dollars they were sending back have stopped with their return.
Mayor Sandro Fonseca estimated that his residents were receiving $2 million a day in these remittances, but now that source of income is threatening to disappear. It is a blow to finances that they might struggle to replace.
These stories are being repeated in countries all across the world, as locals return home and the money coming from the U.S. begins to dry up.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, X at WTHuston, or Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.
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