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US is literally paying deported illegal immigrants to stay in their home countries
Approximately 200 convicted illegal immigrants are handcuffed together and moved into a separate area of Tent City in Phoenix. (AP/Ross D. Franklin)

US is literally paying deported illegal immigrants to stay in their home countries

Some illegal immigrants receive money from Uncle Sam even after they are deported back to their home country, a new report said Thursday.

According to Sen. Rand Paul's annual "airing of grievances," a report that documents the most extreme cases of government waste from the previous year, the Obama administration is using a taxpayer-funded program to provide business support to undocumented immigrants from El Salvador that were deported from the U.S.

The Republican from Kentucky also chairs a Senate subcommittee on federal spending oversight.

The annual document cites a report first published on Jan. 4, which found that the Obama administration has given $50,000 in taxpayer money to illegal immigrants who were deported from the U.S. back to their home country of El Salvador.

"To be clear, the program isn’t incidentally helping deportees — it is directly intended to assist them," Paul wrote in his report.

The program in question is administered by the nonprofit Institute of Salvadorian Migrants, which is funded by the U.S. taxpayer-supported Inter-American Foundation. It is aimed to help deported immigrants start businesses in their home country, in hopes of incentivizing them to stay there.

“So, if you break the rules and get deported, we’ll help you start a business back in your home country," Paul added. "How absurd."

Jessica Vaughn, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies, defended the expense in an interview with the conservative nonprofit news website Watchdog.org, saying it actually works to America's advantage to give money to those who break the law, as long as it stops them from breaking it again.

“It’s in our interest to ensure that people who are deported don’t turn around and come back again," Vaughn said. “People have to have a reason to stay in their country."

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