Trump is considering sending migrants to RWANDA eight months after Keir Starmer shelved similar Tory deal with the African nation_nhy
The Trump administration is reportedly exploring the possibility of deporting migrants to Rwanda as the US continues its crackdown on immigration.
The East African nation is said to be among several locations being considered by Washington to host migrants along with Benin, Moldova, Mongolia and Kosovo, according to anonymous administration officials cited in a Wall Street Journal report.
It comes months after Britain’s Labour government scrapped a Tory scheme that aimed to send migrants on a one-way flight to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed as part of efforts to stop small boat crossings to Britain.
It was claimed the threat of being sent thousands of miles away from the UK would act as a deterrent to potential migrants thinking of making perilous journeys across the Channel.
But a succession of Tory prime ministers ran into legal blocks on the plan, which was scrapped by Sir Keir Starmer as soon as he took office after Labour’s general election win.
The UK invested some £715 million in the now-junked scheme, and Rwanda’s government used some of these funds to develop complexes and hostels designed to house migrants while their asylum claims were examined.
Such infrastructure means Kigali may be at the top of the Trump administration’s list of countries that could feasibly house large numbers of migrants deported from American shores.
But details of the proposals between the US and foreign nations are scant, with the anonymous officials telling the WSJ that they ‘aren’t necessarily looking to sign formal agreements’.
It is expected the US would offer financial incentives along with political support to any nation willing to house migrants.
A State Department spokesperson did not confirm the plans but said in a statement: ‘Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States including ensuring the successful enforcement of final orders of removal.’
US President Donald Trump delivers remarks from the Oval Office of the White House
Former British Home Secretary Priti Patel shakes hands with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta in 2022 when Britain and Rwanda agreed a ‘migration and economic development partnership’
Rwanda has built hostels to accommodate hundreds of migrants but Britain scrapped the plan last year
Gang members are forced to crouch in rows in El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison where hundreds of migrants have been sent by the US
The Trump administration’s reported consideration of more destinations to house migrants comes as the US President continues to trumpet his harsh immigration policies as a crackdown on gang members and other violent criminals.
But mounting claims that a number of individuals with flimsy or no connection to organised crime have been summarily deported has prompted anger among rights groups, Democrats and even some Trump allies.
As part of his sweeping measures, Trump last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that historically has been used only in wartime, to target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
This enabled his administration to deport anyone suspected of involvement with the gang, now designated a foreign terrorist organisation, without a trial – a move that faced widespread condemnation and legal challenges.
A US appeals court last week upheld a decision to block Trump’s use of the law, leading the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Despite no other evidence to suggest Hernandez had any gang connections, he languished in detention for months until his immigration court hearing on March 13, after which he was put on one of three planes with 237 other migrants and deported.
When asked for comment, a Trump administration official said that the administration had confidence in the process of identifying gang members.
‘Intelligence assessments go well beyond a single tattoo,’ the person said on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, the White House also admitted authorities had deported a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland under protected legal status.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accused of being a gang member in 2019 but not convicted of any crime, and a judge had previously ordered that he should not be deported because he could be harmed in El Salvador.
In Monday’s court filing, government lawyers admitted he had been deported in an ‘administrative error’ but argued US courts did not now have jurisdiction to secure his release.
Pressed on the issue Tuesday, the White House was defiant, claiming unreleased evidence showed Abrego Garcia was ‘actually a leader of the brutal MS-13 gang’.
Like Tren de Aragua, the Salvadoran group was declared a foreign terrorist organisation by Trump.
‘Foreign terrorists do not have legal protections in the United States of America anymore and it is within the president’s executive authority and power to deport these heinous individuals from American communities,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing.
While the controversy rages on, migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act must endure horrific conditions at the supermax Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
The sprawling complex contains thousands of hardened gangsters and stands as a symbol of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele’s harsh crackdown on gang violence since it opened in 2023.
This handout picture released on March 16, 2025, by El Salvador’s Presidency press office shows the arrival of alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in the city of Tecoluca, El Salvador
The arrival of alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organisation Tren de Aragua at the Terrorism Confinement Centre
The gang has been linked to kidnapping, extortion, organised crime and contract killings
Salvadoran police officers cut the hair of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua
Prisoners are made to run while leaning forwards with their hands cuffed behind their backs as they move into the prison, Feb 2023
Bukele recently struck a deal with the United States to house purported gang members deported from American shores.
For him, it is an opportunity to show the world the brutal efficacy of his repressive ‘State of Exception’ regime that grants his administration wide ranging powers to crack down on criminal activity at the expense of public freedoms.
For the prisoners, a ‘black hole of human rights’ awaits, according to monitoring groups.
CECOT, built in 2023, has been heralded by Bukele as a superweapon in the war on gang violence.
At the prison, the suspected gang members spend 23-and-a-half hours each day locked in overcrowded cells with just 30 minutes a day to stretch, even while chained in the middle of the hallway.
Huge concrete walls separate some 20,000 of the country’s most violent prisoners from the rest of society.
To enter the jail, staffers, guards and prisoners have to go through a complex registration system before making their way through three sections safeguarded by gates.
Each cell comes equipped with 80 bare iron bunks – mattresses are not included – along with two toilets and two sinks. Windowless solitary confinement rooms await any prisoners who step out of line.
