Sneak into America and visit Rwanda — that’s the package deal being considered by the Trump administration as it looks for places to put criminal illegal immigrants it wants to deport.
Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said the East African nation is in the “early stage” of discussions with the Trump administration over taking deported illegal immigrants who Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called “some of the most despicable human beings,” according to the BBC.
Nduhungirehe said Rwanda might go forward in the “spirit” of giving “another chance to migrants who have problems across the world.”
Nduhungirehe noted that talks to take deportees were “not new to us,” referring to a proposal from Great Britain to send deportees there. The agreement was proposed in 2022 but foundered last year when Britain changed governments.
A report in the U.K. Telegraph said Rwandan officials are considering using housing built by Britain as a place to house illegal immigrants deported from the United States.
“Those are details that will be discussed at an appropriate time,” a top Rwandan government official said.
A report in The Washington Post indicated Rwanda appears open to the possibility of a deal. The Post reported that a U.S. communication that “included a list of names of potential deportees to Rwanda, was received warmly.”
Rubio said in a Cabinet meeting last week that the administration is seeking places to send criminal illegal immigrants, according to Fox News.
“We have gone to countries all over the world and said, ‘Hey, you want good relations with the United States, you need to take back your people that are here illegally.’ And we’ve had historic cooperation. Beyond that, and I say this unapologetically, we are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries,” he said.
Should the U.S. deport illegals to other countries, including Rwanda?
“So we are actively – not just El Salvador – we are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries, will you do that as a favor to us?’ And the further away from America the better, so they can’t come back across the border,” Rubio said.
Rwanda’s human rights record has received criticism from the State Department, which noted in a recent review that “Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees.”
In its 2024 assessment, Amnesty International noted, “There was evidence of torture and other ill-treatment in detention, with a rare prosecution offering limited accountability.”
Rwanda’s past includes accusations from 2021 that it allowed “extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture,” according to the BBC.
In a lawsuit to block the 2022 British plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, attorney Raza Husain said the plan was “unlawful under the Human Rights Act and the common law.”
“Asylum seekers removed to Rwanda face a significant risk of violation of their rights to be free from torture and inhuman treatment,” the court was told, according to the Guardian.
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