He Guarded Embassies. Now he asks Africa to Take America’s Deportees.

A One-Way Ticket to an Unfamiliar Country

Mid-June, West African coast. A plane landed with no media on board. Christian Ehrhardt stepped out. He is 41, head of the State Department’s Office of Remigration. He traveled along the Atlantic coastline, visiting Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, and Gabon in turn. The president of Gabon met him in a seaside palace. On a table outside the reception room were bottled water and a plate of untouched pastries. A red carpet was laid out. For a deputy assistant secretary, such treatment was unusual. A U.S. official familiar with the meeting said: “The message is not just that he is a deputy assistant secretary of state. He represents the White House, so they roll out the red carpet.”

Ehrhardt is not a traditional diplomat. For nearly two decades, he worked in the State Department’s security bureau, focusing on embassy protection. Last year, he was summoned to Washington to lead a new office: the Office of Remigration. The office has about 15 people and is part of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. The name comes from “remigration.” In Europe, the term is used by white nationalists who advocate expelling ethnic minorities and immigrants. Now it hangs on an office plaque at the State Department.

The office’s task is to persuade foreign countries to accept people deported from the United States, even if those people are not their citizens. These agreements are called “third country” deportations. They are central to Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown. Ehrhardt handles the negotiations.

The numbers moved quickly. According to internal government records reviewed by The Washington Post, by the end of June, the Trump administration had authorized or pledged at least $410 million to reach agreements with 31 countries, most in Africa and Latin America. The documents had not been previously made public. They sketch a rapidly expanding network. Direct payments of $81 million flowed to 13 foreign governments. For the U.S. budget, the figure is not large. For many authoritarian regimes, it is far more money than they previously received from the United States. The agreements were written through contracts that bypass most legal requirements attached to foreign assistance, including human rights safeguards. People familiar with the matter said the arrangements avoided normal oversight.

Two other sums are larger: $179 million pledged to the International Organization for Migration and $124 million to the U.N. Refugee Agency, for refugee and infrastructure projects in third countries. The two organizations are not direct parties to the agreements. But foreign governments sought the money when negotiating deportation agreements. It replaced voluntary contributions the United States traditionally made to global aid organizations and was used as a “sweetener.” People familiar with the matter said that without the money, many countries would not agree.

Early flights have already taken off. One to Costa Rica carried migrants from China, Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan. One to the small African kingdom of Eswatini carried migrants from Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and Jamaica. By August 31, 2026, data compiled by Forbidden Stories showed that more than 25,000 people had been sent to third countries, the vast majority to Mexico. Forty-nine African countries had been approached, most of Africa’s 54 nations.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and a longtime Trump aide, stands behind these agreements. Current and former officials describe Miller as uncompromising on immigration. He pushed appointments at the State Department that let him override other foreign policy goals to get more deportations. In April, Miller chaired a multi-agency conference call and expressed dissatisfaction with the speed at which countries were accepting deportees. The criticism was aimed at State Department officials. Foreign leaders treat Ehrhardt as a White House envoy. A U.S. official said: “He is not just a deputy assistant secretary. He belongs to the White House.”

Ehrhardt’s June trip was only one round. Other documents show negotiations with some countries he met could add millions more in payments. For receiving countries, accepting deportees unrelated to them brings money and diplomatic advantage. The deportees arrive in countries where they do not speak the language, have no relatives, and know no one. Third countries may detain them, or send them back to the countries they originally fled.

The contracts raise legal and human rights problems. Bypassing human rights safeguards means U.S. taxpayer money may flow to regimes with poor human rights records without the usual review. The State Department’s own human rights reports have warned of abuses in Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and other countries. Immigration lawyers say third-country deportation is a loophole around U.S. laws that prohibit returning torture victims. One lawyer flipped through the footer of a contract and pointed out that it lacked the usual safeguard clauses. The footer had only signature lines and amounts.

In Washington, the Office of Remigration stays out of public view. The State Department’s social media never names it. Its website has no page for it. It does not appear in domestic press releases. It appears in internal records, contracts, flight manifests. Ehrhardt keeps flying. On his schedule, the next stop is Guinea-Bissau, flight at 2 a.m. The lights of the Gabon palace are left behind.

At the other end of the Atlantic, a plane takes off. There are no reporters on board. Passengers do not know the legal status of the next stop. In their hands may be a plastic meal tray, an entry form, a sheet of paper printed in English and French. The country on the paper is one they have never been to. The plane climbs. Below the clouds, the coastline disappears.