Trump administration explores using foreign aid funds for Ukrainian refugees’ ‘self-deportation’ — The Washington Post 

Last week, the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security signed an agreement to allocate $250 million in foreign assistance funding toward a plan for the removal and return of people from active conflict zones, The Washington Post reports, citing draft internal documents. Records produced between late April and early May — which U.S. officials now describe as “outdated” — name Ukrainians, Haitians, Afghans, Palestinians, Libyans, Sudanese, Syrians, and Yemenis. 

The records outline a voluntary removal process that could affect more than 200,000 Ukrainians and 500,000 Haitians, according to The Washington Post. A source familiar with the administration’s deliberations told the newspaper that Afghan refugees “will be the first large group targeted with voluntary removal packages.”

Earlier this month, The Washington Post revealed that the Trump administration approached the Ukrainian government in January 2025 and urged Kyiv “to accept an unspecified number of U.S. deportees who are citizens of other countries.” There is no indication that Kyiv seriously considered the American proposal, the newspaper reported.

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has slashed U.S. foreign aid spending, dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and announced a program to pay undocumented immigrants to “self-deport” to their home countries.