The Trump administration has made deals across Latin America to assist in the U.S. effort to deport migrants who have entered the country illegally, with migrants being shipped to and held in several Central American countries.
“Trump’s no longer letting the U.S. be treated like a doormat,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital.
The comments come as multiple reports over the last week have detailed President Donald Trump’s push for deportations, with the Associated Press reporting that the administration has struck deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela that have allowed the U.S. to move migrants away from its southern border.
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This split shows President Trump and migrants at the southern border. (John Moore/Getty Images and Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The move has caused Central America to become a “dumping ground” for migrants, according to a report in the Guardian, which pointed to countries such as Panama and Costa Rica which have taken in migrants from the Middle East and Asia.
The Guardian reported that in many cases, Trump has been “strong-arming” Central American nations to play by his rules, oftentimes using fear such as threats to take back the Panama Canal or impose tariffs.
“It’s clear that there’s a new order of relations in this matter where things are demanded of countries that are not in a position to refuse,” said Marcela Martino, deputy director of Central America and Mexico for the Center for Justice and International Law, told the Guardian.
Panama was the first country to agree to a deal with Trump in the middle of February, the report notes, and has since taken on hundreds of migrants from places such as Afghanistan, Iran, China, and Pakistan.
Some of those migrants have agreed to be returned to their home countries, while 128 of the 299 migrants that Panama has received have refused. That refusal has put the migrants in a form of “legal limbo,” the Guardian reported, pointing to viral photos that showed one young Iranian migrant who scrawled “help” on the window of a Panama City hotel, where migrants were temporarily being held.
Migrants deported from the US gesture as they look out the window of the Decapolis Hotel where they are temporarily staying in Panama City, on February 18, 2025. (ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP)
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While some critics have raised concerns about the legality of the deportation programs or the conditions migrants face, Ries pointed out that many of these same countries served as hosts for migrants flowing the other direction during former President Joe Biden’s term.
“Many of these countries viewed the U.S. as a dumping ground as they let millions of migrants traverse their countries just to go to the U.S,” Ries said. “And you know, we’re a sovereign nation, and sovereign countries have a right to choose who comes here, how many, under what terms and when they have to leave. Migrants don’t choose that.”
Ries argued that Trump’s moves to put deportation deals in place are simply an example of the president using American leverage, something not seen under the leadership of Biden.
“The U.S. has leverage with other countries, and our last president didn’t use it and again, treated our country like a doormat, just let people in by the millions,” Ries argued. “The current president is choosing to use that leverage with respect to these other countries.”
US President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Another benefit of the deals, Ries noted, is they may serve as a deterrent for both migrants thinking about heading north and the countries in the last four years who have allowed them passage, arguing that these countries are also capable of defending their own borders.
“They are perfectly able to and should defend their own borders,” Ries said. “Prevent the mass migration in the first place, and then prevent many of these consequences.”
