Leaked State Department Cables Say Trump Administration Is Now ‘Relocating’ Migrant Deportees to Rwanda

The Trump administration is reportedly adding new countries to the list of locales to which it can send deported migrants as it works to carry out and expand its mass deportation operations. In March, the Trump administration sent 238 migrants it claimed were members of a Venezuelan gang to a prison in El Salvador, using the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to quickly remove them from America — raising concerns about the due process afforded the individuals deported. The list of countries to which the government is sending noncitizens is now apparently expanding. On Tuesday, a left-wing news outlet, the Handbasket, reported that a State Department cable sent from the American Embassy at Kigali on March 13 indicated that Rwanda is willing to accept deportees from America that cannot be returned to their country of origin.Another cable dated April 22 states that an Iraqi national, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, already has been sent to Rwanda. However, it was not clear what authority the administration had used for the “relocation.”“Embassy Kigali convened an after-action exercise that confirmed the U.S. interagency effectively supported a capable Rwandan government to relocate detained Iraqi national Mr. Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who could not be removed to Iraq pursuant to U.S immigration proceedings,” the cable states. “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.”The memo states that Rwanda is willing to accept “third country nationals” to “improve U.S. relations and show it can advance the America First Agenda.”Mr. Ameen and his family arrived in America in 2014 as refugees. He was arrested by the FBI in 2018 and accused of being a member of ISIS. The secretary of state at the time, Mike Pompeo, alleged that the vetting process for refugees “allowed a foreign national to slip through who was later discovered to be a member of ISIS.”His case was profiled in the New Yorker in 2020 when the first Trump administration tried to have him extradited to Iraq to face trial for allegedly killing an Iraqi policeman. However, a magistrate judge ruled that the government’s case was “dubious” and based on “unreliable witnesses,” and ordered that he be released from custody.In April 2021, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers detained Mr. Ameen and started immigration proceedings. A former FBI special agent told the immigration court that Mr. Ameen “personally engaged in numerous acts of terrorism in and around the Rawah area, starting from 2009 up until the latest potentially in 2014.” His attorneys claim that allegations he killed an Iraqi policeman were made by angry family members.The government alleged that Mr. Ameen did not disclose connections to a terrorist organization when he applied for refugee status. Since then, he has been held in ICE custody. A law firm aimed at providing service for immigrants, the Immigrant Legal Defense, said last year that deporting Mr. Ameen to Iraq would “place him in danger of wrongful execution.”According to the cables, Mr. Ameen was sent to Rwanda on April 4. Rwanda reportedly requested a one-time payment of $100,000 for accepting individuals deported from America. Additionally, the cable said Rwanda is ready to take at least ten more individuals and wants a “bilateral dialogue to develop a durable program to facilitate these relocations and avoid reinventing the wheel with time-intensive ad hoc negotiations.”The cable also instructed American officials to direct questions to the Department of Homeland Security and not to “speak on the deliberations or decisions of the Rwandan government.” The cables do not detail how many individuals the government plans to send to Rwanda. However, the reported agreement appears to have been in the works for some time. In 2022, Great Britain and Rwanda struck an agreement to send asylum seekers who entered that country illegally to Rwanda. The British parliament approved legislation preventing courts from blocking deportations to the African nation due to concerns about the unsafe conditions there. The prime minister at the time, Rishi Sunak, said, “The only way to stop the boats is to eliminate the incentive to come, by making it clear that if you are here illegally, you will not be able to stay.”In 2023, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda was not a safe country to send asylum seekers to. The justices raised concerns that asylum seekers could be sent back to their home countries, from Rwanda, where they could face persecution. The justices also raised concerns about Rwanda’s human rights record, extrajudicial killings, and limits on political freedoms. In July 2024, Prime Minister Starmer said that the policy was “dead and buried.”While the policy was killed off in the U.K., the Wall Street Journal reported in May 2024 that President Trump’s campaign advisers were identifying countries in Latin America and other parts of the world to send asylum seekers to. The Journal also reported at the time that Mr. Trump’s team was looking at establishing a similar agreement with Rwanda as the U.K. had. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. The State Department also did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. The Rwandan Embassy at Washington did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.Mr. Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, reacted to the report on America’s apparent deal with Rwanda, writing on X, “Find the leakers at The @StateDept and fire them.”

Leaked State Department Cables Say Trump Administration Is Now ‘Relocating’ Migrant Deportees to Rwanda

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