Overview
- Costa Rica, which signed the deal Monday during a visit by U.S. envoy Kristi Noem, said Thursday it will accept up to 25 people a week transferred from the United States.
- The government calls it a non‑binding migration agreement that lets Costa Rica accept or reject proposed transfers, process arrivals under its own laws with a special status, and coordinate housing with the U.N. migration agency.
- Officials have not disclosed where people will be held or for how long, though Public Security Minister Mario Zamora promised better conditions than last year’s detentions and said authorities would work with the U.S. on returns.
- The arrangement is part of Washington’s third‑country policy, which sends migrants to nations that are not their own, and follows similar pacts with places such as South Sudan, Honduras, Rwanda, Guyana, Dominica, and St. Kitts and Nevis.
- Rights groups and legal experts warn the transfers can sidestep protections against sending people to danger, while opposition figures in San José cast the deal as President Rodrigo Chaves aligning with Trump as the U.S. has spent at least $40 million moving roughly 300 migrants under this program.