A small archipelago six times smaller than Rhode Island has agreed to take “third country nationals” from the United States.
Palau, located in the western Pacific Ocean, inked the deal with the Trump administration in exchange for $75 million in foreign aid after five months of negotiations.
Migrants who have never been charged with a crime will be allowed to live and work in the 180-square-mile country, which is home to fewer than 18,000 people.
The U.S. Embassy in Koror, the former capital of Palau, confirmed the details on social media after a ceremony to sign the agreement was held on Christmas Eve.
“The United States deeply appreciates Palau’s cooperation in enforcing U.S. immigration laws, which remains a top priority for the Trump Administration,” a spokesperson for the embassy wrote. “In this regard, the United States granted $7.5 million to address the needs of relevant Palau public services.”
According to the statement, the funds will be allocated to disaster preparedness, law enforcement, and financial stability.
The United States has been pushing for the agreement for months, as the Trump administration continues its goal to resettle migrants in countries they are not from.
Lawmakers issued the demand as early as July, but did not specify how many migrants Palau, a country that the United States provides with significant aid, would have to accept. That number has now been confirmed to be 75.
Both Palau and the United States have a long history together, with the island nation being given full independence from the U.S. in 1994 after five decades of American administration. Just a decade later, Palau became one of the few nations to actively support the U.S. during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Although the archipelago has no army of its own, Palauans are eligible to serve in the U.S. military. They were deployed twice to Iraq during the war, along with residents of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Samoa, Hawaii, and Guam.
Palau became fully independent in 1994 but remains heavily dependent on the United States for financial aid and defense support, in exchange for special U.S. entry rights. The U.S. is given strategic use of Palau’s lands and waters as part of its diplomatic agreements.
The push to deport migrants heading to the U.S. to an archipelago that is thousands of miles away comes as the Trump administration hardens its crackdown on immigration.
Over the festive season, ICE released an AI-generated video of Santa Claus rounding up undocumented immigrants while wearing a bulletproof vest and brandishing weapons.
Later in the video, Santa can be seen escorting immigrants onto a plane for deportation after processing them at a detention facility.
A report has indicated that the Trump administration is planning to acquire at least seven industrial-scale warehouses to use as detention facilities for up to 80,000 migrants.
The Trump administration is facing a growing problem with the sheer volume of undocumented migrants being held at detention facilities, with a Trace report suggesting that 67,000 people were held at ICE centers in November.
The warehouse proposal, reported by the Washington Post, stated that each site would hold 5,000 to 10,000 immigrants and would operate as part of a “feeder” system. That means detainees will go to processing centers before arriving at warehouses, to give ICE agents time to deport migrants at detention centers.
