- Costa Rica has received the first group of 25 non-Costa Rican deportees from the United States.
- The agreement belongs to the Shield of the Americas initiative involving seventeen partner nations.
- Deportees from eight nations receive temporary humanitarian status and U.S.-funded assistance upon arrival.
(SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA) – Costa Rica accepted the first group of non-Costa Rican migrants deported by the United States on Saturday, April 11, 2026, opening a new third-country deportation agreement that Washington and San José finalized less than three weeks earlier.
The first flight arrived in San José with 25 individuals, marking the start of a program under which Costa Rica agreed to receive up to 25 migrants per week under the Costa Rican Deportation Assistance Program.
Officials set the deal on March 23, 2026, during a high-level visit to the Costa Rican capital. Kristi Noem, acting as the newly appointed Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas initiative and in what the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica described as her final act as Secretary of Homeland Security, signed the agreement alongside Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves.
“We are very proud to have partners like President Chaves and Costa Rica, who are working to ensure that people who are in our country illegally have the opportunity to return to their countries of origin. This agreement is a cornerstone of the Shield of the Americas initiative, aimed at restoring order and security to our hemisphere,” Noem said on March 23, 2026.
The arrangement places Costa Rica inside a wider regional enforcement push. The White House said on March 7, 2026 that the Shield of the Americas is a coalition of 17 nations focused on cartel activity and mass migration, and this agreement gives the United States a regional partner where it can send third-country nationals rather than hold them in U.S. detention.
DHS changed hands the next day. Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as the 9th Secretary of Homeland Security on March 24, 2026, a transition that came as the new removal arrangement moved from diplomacy to operations.
The first group included migrants from eight nations: Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, and Morocco. Costa Rican authorities said the agreement covers migrants without criminal records and excludes returns to countries where they face a documented risk of persecution.
San José kept control over each case. Under the agreement, the United States must provide a manifest of deportees 48 hours in advance, and Costa Rica retains the sovereign right to accept or reject individual cases.
Upon arrival, the migrants receive temporary legal status on humanitarian grounds. From there, they may seek assisted voluntary return to their home countries, apply for refugee status in Costa Rica, or pursue temporary migration regularization.
Mario Zamora Cordero, Costa Rican Minister of Public Security, described the arrangement on April 2, 2026 as a reciprocal measure tied to U.S. funding. “Costa Rica feels obligated to reciprocate at a time when the United States and its immigration services need the humanitarian cooperation of Costa Rican authorities. With financial support from the United States, [migrants] will be provided with housing and food on Costa Rican soil. to guarantee the return of these individuals to their countries,” Zamora said.
The U.S. government is funding the program. The International Organization for Migration provides food, lodging, and basic humanitarian aid for the first seven days of each migrant’s stay, while Costa Rica’s migration police handle the initial reception.
The General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners said on April 11, 2026: “Upon entering the country, the migrants will receive primary care from the Professional Migration Police, with the cooperation of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).” Costa Rican officials have also promised humane conditions and housing in hotels or specialized centers.
The agreement has already drawn concern from human rights advocates, who warn that deportees can end up in legal limbo in a country where they have no ties and may not speak the language. Critics have also raised refoulement concerns, arguing that third-country arrangements can expose refugees to forced return if Costa Rica’s screening process proves less rigorous than U.S. asylum proceedings.
Those concerns carry domestic weight in Costa Rica. Previous operations in 2025 sparked protests over the treatment of migrants near the border, and the new arrangement places those tensions inside a formal U.S.-funded program with a fixed weekly intake.
For Washington, the new channel offers a structured removal route for people whose home countries may refuse to accept them or with whom the United States lacks direct deportation logistics. For Costa Rica, it opens a role as both partner and gatekeeper, with the legal authority to screen each case before the next flight appears on a 48-hour manifest.
Official statements marking the rollout came from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House, each tying the agreement to the Shield of the Americas framework that officials presented in March. By April 11, 2026, that framework had moved from summit language to the arrival hall in San José, where 25 migrants from four continents became the first test of the new third-country deportation agreement.
