Palau agrees to take up to 75 deportees from US under $7.5M deal

In December 2025, a claim spread online that the island nation of Palau signed a $7.5 million agreement with the U.S. government to accept up to 75 non-criminal deportees. Users shared the claim on multiple social media platforms (archived, archived, archived), and several news media outlets reported it. 

The claim is true — amid the focused deportation effort of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the U.S. and Palau publicly signed a $7.5 million agreement that would allow the U.S. to send up to 75 non-criminal deportees to the Pacific islands about 500 miles east of the Philippines, which many online correctly identified as a 2004 filming location for the reality competition show “Survivor.”

The official Facebook page of Palau’s President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. announced the agreement on Dec. 23, 2025, in a post (archived) that read, in part:

As part of this broader cooperation, Palau and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding allowing up to 75 third country nationals, who have never been charged with a crime, to live and work in Palau, helping address local labor shortages in needed occupations.

 

In connection with this arrangement, the United States granted $7.5 million to help Palau meet related public service and infrastructure needs, while both countries continue close cooperation on immigration and security matters.

“Third countries” or “alternative countries” refer to nations other than the U.S. or deportees’ home countries. 

Palau’s minister of state, Gustav Aitaro, and the U.S. ambassador to Palau, Joel Ehrendreich, signed the agreement in a public ceremony on Dec. 24, 2025, despite opposition from both Palau’s National Congress and the nation’s Council of Chiefs — traditional chiefs from all 16 of Palau’s states. 

In July 2025, both houses of Palau’s Congress signed a letter (reportedly viewed by Reuters and other news media outlets) to Whipps reaffirming support for Palau-U.S. relations, but reportedly said they “cannot accept this specific proposal.” According to news media outlet Marianas Variety, it read: “We strongly advise against proceeding further on this matter … we cannot afford to overpromise or commit to something we cannot fulfill.”

The Council of Chiefs reportedly said in its formal response:

Our position has not been an easy one to reach because the request comes to us from our number one ally, the U.S. […] We are certain, however, that our best friend understands our precarious and fragile situation as a tiny island nation seeking to exist in this complex world.

The agreement is the latest development in a long history of U.S.-Palau relations. Palau gained sovereignty in 1994 following decades of U.S. administrative control over the islands after World War II. During former President Joe Biden’s tenure, the country renewed the Compact of Free Association, which grants the U.S. military access as well as “full authority and responsibility for defense and security matters” in and relating to Palau, according to Palau’s U.S. Embassy.

In exchange, Palauan citizens can travel to the U.S. without visas to live, work and study. More Palauans serve as volunteers in U.S. armed forces per capita than residents of any U.S. state.

The $7.5 million deal also fits within a broader pattern of the Trump administration sending deportees to third countries. 

For example, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted (archived) in July 2025: “NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed— This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”

While the terms of the U.S.-Palau agreement stipulate that deportees are “non-criminal” and the island nation has the ability to refuse suggested deportees, other nations such as South Sudan and Eswatini have accepted criminals whose home countries reportedly refused to receive them. 

Sources