Trump Finds Another Country to Accept His Mass Deportations

The U.S. government is reportedly preparing to deport immigrants to Rwanda who can’t be sent back to their country of origin due to fears of prosecution. The Handbasket newsletter reported Tuesday that a State Department cable sent from the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on March 13 stated that the country would be willing to accept such people. A new cable sent Tuesday from the State Department said that a refugee from Iraq, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, became the first person to be officially deported to Rwanda thanks to this arrangement.

It’s quite a departure from the public deal the U.S. cut with El Salvador to accept deported immigrants in January, which resulted in legal challenges and at least one immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, being mistakenly sent to the country. The use of Rwanda as a third country for deportations has not been publicly disclosed by the country or the U.S. government. “This successful relocation—and Rwanda’s subsequent agreement to accept additional third-country nationals (TCNs)—proved the concept for developing a new removal program to relocate TCNs from the United States to Rwanda,” Tuesday’s cable states, according to The Handbasket.

The cable mentions a “wish list” from Rwanda, including policy concessions as well as a single $100,000 payment for “social services, residency documents, and work permits.” The newsletter confirmed that the payment was made, but how the U.S. responded to other items on the list is unknown. “Rwanda also agreed to accept another ten TCNs of various nationalities,” the cable also states, while adding that the country “seeks a bilateral dialogue to develop a durable program to facilitate these relocations and avoid reinventing the wheel with time-intensive ad hoc negotiations.”

Similar to Abrego Garcia, Ameen was accused of being a terrorist by the first Trump administration, who called him a member of ISIS and said he abused the refugee resettlement program. In 2014, Ameen and his family were granted refugee status, but he was arrested in 2018 by “dozens of armed men” at his Sacramento home. The administration claims that Ameen murdered an Iraqi police officer as part of an ISIS plot, and tried to have him deported back to Iraq to stand trial. Ameen maintains that he is innocent, saying that he was in Turkey at the time of the murder, awaiting refugee status with the United Nations.

https://newrepublic.com/post/194312/trump-deportation-rwanda