U.S. Foreign Aid and Compacts

The Trump administration and the Pacific island nation of Palau have signed a memorandum of understanding under which Palau will accept up to 75 'third-country national' deportees from the United States, who have not been charged with crimes, in exchange for $7.5 million in U.S. assistance. Announced Wednesday by President Surangel Whipps Jr.’s office and the U.S. Embassy in Koror, the deal permits those deportees to live and work in Palau to help ease local labor shortages and includes $6 million to shore up Palau’s civil service pension system and $2 million for new law-enforcement initiatives, as part of a broader Trump push to relocate migrants to third countries. The agreement supplements an earlier Biden-era 20‑year, $889 million compact support package and comes amid similar U.S. arrangements with countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Eswatini, South Sudan, Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador.