Dominican Republic Agrees to Accept Third-Country Nationals Deported by US

(DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) – The Dominican Republic has not confirmed any agreement to accept third-country nationals deported by US authorities, and no official announcement from either government had established such an arrangement as of May 13, 2026.

Publicly described Dominican migration actions instead center on domestic enforcement inside the country, while documented U.S. efforts to send migrants to third countries involve other destinations. That distinction has become more important as claims circulate online about whether the Dominican Republic is taking people who are not its own nationals after they are deported by US authorities.

U.S. and Dominican authorities have issued no press releases, government statements or formal notices confirming that Santo Domingo agreed to receive foreigners removed from the United States to a country other than their own. The material available from both sides points in another direction: stepped-up immigration checks, detentions and removals carried out by Dominican agencies within Dominican territory.

Dirección General de Migración, known as DGM, reported one recent operation in which officers detained 1,579 foreigners in irregular status and deported 1,277 across three macro-regions. The excerpt describing that operation did not tie it to any U.S. transfer program and framed it as internal enforcement.

A separate Holy Week operation, carried out from April 2-5, 2026, detained 2,311 foreigners and deported 2,260. That account also described a domestic crackdown, not a reception program for migrants deported by US authorities from outside the Dominican Republic.

Those figures matter because they show what Dominican enforcement has looked like in practice this year. The known activity involves detention sweeps, border and checkpoint controls, and deportations by Dominican officials of people found in irregular status inside the country.

The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo has also warned Americans about tougher Dominican migration enforcement. Its alert says U.S. citizens should expect heightened checks, delays and detentions at borders and checkpoints, and it advises travelers to carry passports and report incidents to (809) 567-7775 or to the Defensor del Pueblo at (809) 381-7777.

That embassy warning again describes domestic enforcement inside the Dominican Republic, not a bilateral program under which the country would receive non-Dominican migrants deported by US authorities. It speaks to conditions on the ground for travelers and residents, where officials have intensified inspections and document checks.

Questions about the Dominican Republic have surfaced against a wider U.S. deportation push that reaches well beyond the Caribbean. According to thirdcountrydeportationwatch.org, the Trump administration had deported over 17,500 third-country nationals to 21 countries as of May 5, 2026, including Cameroon and Costa Rica.

Justice Action Center also reported that DHS sent notices to about 500,000 beneficiaries of the CHNV humanitarian parole program, covering Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, directing them to self-deport. Human Rights Watch, WOLA and immpolicytracking.org have also referenced bilateral arrangements with African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, while citing EO 14165 §8.

That broader record shows the United States has pursued third-country deportation arrangements elsewhere. It does not establish that the Dominican Republic joined those efforts, and the available government material from Santo Domingo does not place the country in that category.

Some confusion appears to stem from a separate Caribbean case and from loosely described media claims. The Commonwealth of Dominica, which is a different country from the Dominican Republic, has been described as having a tentative deal for asylum seeker transfers, though the timeline and terms were not laid out in the material available here.

Another point of confusion comes from a Color Visión YouTube video that mentions the Dominican Republic accepting “temporary entry of foreigners” through a comunicado from the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. The excerpt attached to that claim does not describe U.S. deportees, does not identify third-country nationals and does not set out any agreement terms.

That leaves a narrower picture than some online claims suggest. Dominican officials are carrying out deportations and detentions inside the country, while U.S. third-country removals are documented in relation to other states and other arrangements.

The difference is not semantic. A domestic enforcement drive means Dominican authorities are identifying and expelling people already present in the country without legal status. A third-country acceptance arrangement would mean the government agreed to receive people deported by US authorities even though those people are not Dominican nationals. No official confirmation of that second step had emerged by May 13, 2026.

The embassy guidance also gives a sense of how tense enforcement conditions have become on the ground. Travelers have been warned about delays and detentions at checkpoints and borders, and the advice to carry passports at all times suggests officials are scrutinizing identity and immigration status closely.

That alert provides one of the clearest official signals now available. It addresses exposure to Dominican enforcement measures, not any shared U.S.-Dominican mechanism for receiving foreigners deported by US authorities from other nationalities.

Anyone trying to verify fresh developments has only a short list of official points of contact. The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo lists [email protected] and (809) 567-7775 for immigration-related assistance and incident reporting, while Dominican migration information is published by DGM at [migracion.gob.do](https://migracion.gob.do).

As of Wednesday, May 13, 2026, that official trail still does not show the Dominican Republic accepting third-country nationals deported by US authorities. What it does show is a country intensifying its own immigration enforcement, a U.S. government expanding deportation pressure abroad, and a gap between those two facts that no public agreement has closed.