US seeks agreements with Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe to accept deported migrants Exclusive by WSJ

The Trump administration is actively working on securing agreements with several countries to take in migrants deported from the United States.

According to sources familiar with the matter, quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. immigration officials are exploring more destinations where they can send migrants whom the U.S. seeks to deport, especially when their home countries are either slow to accept them or outright refuse. This initiative is modeled on a deal the administration struck with Panama in February, under which more than 100 migrants, primarily from the Middle East, were sent to Panama. The Central American country then detained the migrants and worked to repatriate them to their respective nations.

Discussions are currently ongoing with nations in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, although the U.S. is not necessarily looking to formalize agreements. The fate of the deported migrants would vary depending on the host country. For instance, the U.S. has no specific preference about whether the migrants could seek asylum in the host country or if they would be sent back to their home countries.

Countries the U.S. has approached include Libya, Rwanda, Benin, Eswatini, Moldova, Mongolia, and Kosovo. The U.S. hopes these countries might accept the deportees, possibly in exchange for financial support or the political advantage of helping President Trump advance one of his key domestic priorities.

In addition to these agreements, the administration is pursuing longer-term agreements with certain Latin American countries to serve as safe havens for migrants to apply for asylum instead of doing so in the U.S. Officials are close to finalizing an agreement with Honduras and are in talks with Costa Rica about similar arrangements.

In March, Trump invoked wartime powers to deport over 130 alleged Venezuelan gang members from the U.S. to El Salvador. The 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, which grants the president the authority to deport foreign nationals deemed hostile during wartime, was used to carry out these deportations. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the law’s use, questioning whether the administration had violated his ruling. The White House denied the accusation.

The deported gang members have been held in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a maximum-security prison.

During the final year of his first term, Trump briefly pursued agreements with several Central American countries to accept deportees from other nations. In early 2020, the U.S. sent around 1,000 migrants from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala for asylum, but the arrangement collapsed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, former Trump officials, now working with conservative think tanks, have been compiling lists of potential countries for such agreements.

Some of the ideas were inspired by the UK’s 2022 deal with Rwanda, where the government paid $155 million to relocate migrants from the Middle East to the East African country. However, the U.K. plan faced significant legal and political challenges, and it was abandoned after only four people were relocated.

By Tamilla Hasanova