Rwandan officials have confirmed that the East African nation is in the “early stages” of talks with the Trump administration about accepting unwanted deportees after El Salvador recently entered into a similar agreement with the United States.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, the country’s foreign affairs minister, said his government is in the “spirit” of giving “another chance to migrants who have problems across the world” during a Sunday interview with Rwandan TV after returning from Washington, DC, last week.
“We are in discussions with the United States,” Nduhungirehe told the state broadcaster, according to Reuters.
“It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing … still in the early stages,” he added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio made it clear that the U.S. is looking for other countries to hold deported criminal migrants during a late April cabinet meeting at the White House, Breitbart News reported.
“I say this unapologetically, we are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries,” Rubio stated. “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.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has already accepted hundreds of deportees, including “over 250 alien enemy members” of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Rubio announced last month:
Bukele said the U.S. is paying “a very low fee” for his country to house the deportees in its Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) outside of San Salvador, Breitbart News reported.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
