Palau's president signed deportee MOU despite legislature's repeated objections

Palau's Congress and Council of Chiefs had twice rejected a U.S. proposal to relocate deportees to the Pacific island nation — Senate President Hokkons Baules warned in an October 3, 2025 letter against proceeding given the "practical issues" it would raise for Palauan society — before President Surangel Whipps Jr. announced a Memorandum of Understanding anyway on December 24, 2025. Under the deal, Palau would receive $7.5 million in U.S. funding, along with a new hospital, in exchange for accepting deportees with clean criminal records; Palau would retain final veto over each individual proposed.

In January 2026, Palau's Senate voted to block implementation and called for a national referendum on the agreement; the following month, the Senate and two private citizens sued President Whipps, arguing the MOU was effectively an unratified treaty that required legislative approval under Palau's constitution and amounted to "unauthorized executive action." A judge allowed implementation to proceed despite the suit. The first deportee, a Vietnamese national, arrived in Palau in May 2026 but left after roughly two weeks; two more arrived July 8, 2026.