State Department shifts $250 million from refugee aid to ‘self-deportations’
The U.S. State Department has moved $250 million to the Department of Homeland Security for voluntary deportations by migrants without legal status, a spokesperson said, an unprecedented repurposing of funds that have been used to aid refugees uprooted by war and natural disasters.
The money has been transferred “to provide a free flight home and an exit bonus to encourage and assist illegal aliens to voluntarily depart the United States,” the State Department spokesperson told Reuters.
Historically, those funds have been used “to provide protection to vulnerable people” overseas and to resettle refugees in the U.S., said Elizabeth Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of state.
The re-routing of the money comes as President Donald Trump pushes to reshape U.S. government agencies to serve his “America First” agenda.
The State Department’s planned reorganization explicitly states that the agency’s refugee bureau now largely will focus on efforts to “return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status.”
The funds came from Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) overseen by the Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration. Its website says its mission is to “reduce illegal immigration,” aid people “fleeing persecution, crisis or violence and seek durable solutions for forcibly displaced people.”
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, citing the law authorizing the funding, said in a May 7 Federal Register notice that underwriting the repatriation of people without legal status will bolster the “foreign policy interests” of the U.S.
He did not mention the $250 million transfer to DHS.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.