America First Agenda: Let’s Help Palau

The lengths the Trump Administration will go to relocate so-called ‘third country nationals’

Source: Alex Sheshunoff https://www.abeginnersguidetoparadise.com/

On December 24, 2025, the Republic of Palau announced a landmark agreement with the Trump Administration to accept 75 immigrants — those without any criminal charges (other than residing in the United States illegally) in exchange for financial support. Palau is an island country in the western Pacific Ocean, located in the Micronesia region of Oceania, east of the Philippines and southeast of Guam.

These individuals who may be unable to be relocated back to their country of origin for various reasons will be sent to Palau at the U.S. government’s expense, to “live and work in Palau, helping address local labor shortages in needed occupations.”

In exchange for accepting these individuals from the United States, Palau will get:

• A new national hospital, funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency,
• An additional $6 million, on top of a previously granted $20 million, to support its civil service pension system,
• A commitment for improving Palau’s capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters, with additional initiatives now being explored with Palau’s government,
• New law enforcement initiatives in Palau at a cost of $2 million to address critical threats, and
• The United States granted $7.5 million to help Palau meet related public service and infrastructure needs, while both countries continue close cooperation on immigration and security matters.

All this for only 75 non-criminal immigrants, who will be deported from the United States.

Per the *New York Times:*

Palau, with a population of about 18,000, was administered by the United States after World War II and became independent in 1994. But the two countries have maintained tight ties through an agreement known as “free association,” which gives Palauans the right to work, live and study in the United States, while Washington funds the local government and has military access to the archipelago. That arrangement was renewed last year under the Biden administration with a pledge of about $900 million in aid to Palau over 20 years.

Palau has the right to agree “on a case-by-case basis” who it will accept, the president’s office said, and prospective arrivals will be screened nationally. The statement said that the government would continue discussions with leaders and the public as the process unfolds. It was not immediately clear when the program would begin. (*New York Times)*

What will happen to someone — or some family — who is on track to be deported from the United States, but will not be sent to the country where the family may have originated? On the one hand, if a family sought asylum in the U.S. years ago because of violence or other problems in their origin country — and now they are no longer welcome to stay in the U.S. — it may be safer for them to be sent to Palau. On the other hand, the definition of criminality (all unadjudicated, of course) is in the eye of the beholder. Who will Palau consider to be a criminal that they will not accept? U.S. DHS officials continue to claim the people they are detaining and deporting (or supporting self-deportation back to origin countries) are the worst of the worst. The block quote below was pulled directly from their media release:

In less than a year, President Trump has delivered some of the most historic and consequential achievements in presidential history — and this Administration is just getting started,” Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making America safe again and putting the American people first. In record-time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens. Though 2025 was historic, we won’t rest until the job is done.

In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 1.9 million self-deportations and more than 622,000 deportations.

What will happen if people are sent to Palau, who do not want to go there? Undoubtedly, they will be forcibly transported there, without any means to return to the United States. Once in Palau, what are the “needed occupations” they will be filling? Are these skilled labor roles? In other words, were these people performing skilled labor jobs in the United States (probably paying taxes, contributing to society, etc.), and then now will be forced to do the same type of work in another country, in order to cover their ‘room and board’? In the United States, according to the U.S. DHS’ own website, this is called Human Trafficking:

Forced labor — The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. (22 U.S.C. § 7102(11)(B)).

The total of the dollar commitments noted above to Palau (not counting the $900 million number promised under the Biden Administration) totals $35.5 million. And that is not counting the cost of the hospital. For 75 people, that’s about $473,000 per person.

Meanwhile, U.S. citizens in North Carolina are still waiting on federal home buyouts from 2024’s Hurricane Helene, via promised funding from the FEMA Hazardous Mitigation Grant Program. There are more than 500 American applicants for that program, with an estimated $240 million in property value (pre-storm) waiting — some now with mortgage payments coming due after a one year reprieve, even though they are unlivable or condemned. That number is very similar — at an average of $480,000 per family.