The State Department doesn’t really want to talk about the immigration office

While Trump did not use the word again in the early days of his second term in office, in May 2025, Congressional Notification from the Department of State He revealed that the Trump administration was planning this Establishing an immigration office Inside the Ministry’s Office of Population, Migration and Refugees.

The Congressional notification said the Immigration Office would initially be staffed by staff reassigned from the office’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. “We in the Western Hemisphere Bureau did not know what this language meant to us, and despite all our questions, our leadership would not or could not explain it to us,” says the source, who worked at the State Department for years. “We didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Far-right groups and leaders in the United States and Europe praised the decision. Martin Sellner, Austrian activist and former member of the neo-Nazi group, He told WIRED At the time, Trump’s policy “sets out several requirements” when asked if he believed remigration had already begun in the United States.

in June In July, Trump mentioned the term reinstatement three times on his Social Truth platform, linking it to the work ICE was doing regarding mass deportations. “It’s called ‘Restore Immigration’ and it will make America great again,” Trump wrote in a July 4 letter. Posted on Social Truth.

Meanwhile, employees were apparently trying to change the name of the new office.

“Our office leadership told us they had asked to change these terms numerous times, and were repeatedly told no,” says the source familiar with the office’s work. “At the time, there was a thought about whether this was a mistake, and do they know what they are talking about, and do they even understand what remigration means. But clearly they did.”

By the end of 2025, employees began processing government-to-government payments for deals negotiated by the Trump administration. The funds were supposed to be used to ensure that the deportees were housed in conditions that met basic humanitarian needs, but according to the source, there was no oversight or transparency about how these funds were used after they were sent.

Although the immigration office is not mentioned on the State Department’s website, a document published last January shed more light on the agency’s mission.

“Immigration and border security are central to our diplomatic engagements, especially for those in our hemisphere,” the State Department wrote in a letter. Strategic planning document It was published in January and covers the period from 2026 to 2030. “This includes ensuring that foreign countries facilitate the repatriation of their nationals who do not have the right to remain in the United States; negotiating arrangements with other countries to accept the transfer of asylum seekers and illegal aliens removed from US communities; and working with the Department of Homeland Security to support voluntary repatriation.”

In February, the Democratic minority joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Published a report Which outlined the significant expansion in the use and cost of third-party migrations. “The total costs of third-country deportations carried out by the Trump administration through January 2026 are unknown, but are likely to exceed $40 million,” the report notes. “Much of the money was provided in lump sums, often before any third-country nationals arrived.”