President Trump’s administration is reportedly eyeing Rwanda as a potential deportation destination for migrants from countries that won’t accept repatriates as officials carry out his sprawling immigration crackdown.
Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe, the East African country’s foreign minister, told the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency on Sunday that the government is in early talks with the U.S. about the proposal, but he didn’t provide details.
“It is true that we are in discussions with the United States,” he said. “These talks are still ongoing, and it would be premature to conclude how they will unfold.”
The New York Times reported Nduhungirehe hasn’t said whether Rwanda would be seeking financial compensation in return for accepting other countries’ citizens.
Speaking to reporters outside of the White House on Monday, Trump border czar Tom Homan acknowledged the administration is trying to hash out agreements with other countries to receive deported migrants, but he wouldn’t identify which nations when asked if some in Africa could be included.
“There’s talks underway with other countries that are willing to take illegal aliens,” Homan said. “Their own countries won’t take them, so we’ll find a third safe country willing to take them.”
The U.S. State Department flagged Rwanda in 2023 for human rights concerns, including “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.”
The Trump administration has flown hundreds of migrants — mostly from Venezuela — to a prison in El Salvador, despite court orders that have attempted to halt the mass deportation program. Trump has argued the deportations are focused on criminals and gang members who are a threat to people in the country legally.
Human rights advocates have voiced concerns about the deportations to El Salvador.
“We call on the Salvadoran Government to allow independent monitoring bodies immediate and unfettered access to prisons holding the deportees,” experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council said in a statement last week. “The lack of a clear legal status in El Salvador could further expose the deportees to indefinite and arbitrary detention in the country, and put some Venezuelan detainees at risk of onward refoulement to Venezuela where they could face serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearances.”
Venezuela had refused to accept some repatriates from the U.S. prior to President Nicolás Maduro lifting a temporary moratorium in March, so they were sent to El Salvador instead.
The Trump administration is also urging people in the country illegally to voluntarily deport themselves. The Department of Homeland Security unveiled a program Monday to pay $1,000 apiece, plus travel expenses, to migrants lacking legal status who “self deport.”
According to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement figures, there were nearly 1.5 million nondetained migrants with final orders of removal still living in the United States in November.
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