Illegal immigrants facing deportation may be sent to countries other than their home nations under a plan being developed by President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.
Deportation efforts often stall when a country, such as Venezuela, refuses to accept its citizens from the United States.
To address this issue, Trump’s team is reportedly working on identifying nations willing to accept illegal immigrants who are not their citizens, according to NBC News, citing unnamed sources.
“The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they do not know any of the people or the language and have no connection to the culture,” the report said, taking a seemingly tone-deaf stance given that migrants who cross illegally into the U.S. have no connection to American culture.
“It is not clear if the migrants would be allowed to legally remain to work and live in the countries to which they are deported. It is also not known what kind of pressure — either economic or diplomatic — the Trump transition is applying to countries to get them to agree, or might apply once President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January,” the report added.
The outlet identified several nations in and around the Caribbean Sea as potential destinations, including Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama, and Grenada.
According to The Guardian, the office of Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis confirmed that it had been approached by Trump’s transition team but rejected the proposal.
Mexico, another country mentioned as a potential destination for illegal immigrants, has expressed a desire to avoid accepting deported individuals from other nations, according to Reuters.
“We hope to reach an agreement with the Trump administration so that, in case these deportations happen, they send people from other countries directly to their countries of origin,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said, though she stopped short of saying her country flat-out would not take deportations.
NBC reported that Trump could potentially leverage the threat of tariffs on Mexican goods to pressure Mexico into accepting illegal immigrants from other countries. The outlet also noted that in 2019, Trump arranged for some deported illegal immigrants to be flown to Guatemala.
However, the report stated that the number of individuals involved was small, and the practice was discontinued in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NBC further reported that the Trump administration is working to establish a system capable of deporting illegal immigrants within a week of their arrest.
“President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to stop the invasion of illegal immigrants, secure the border, and deport dangerous criminals and terrorists that make our communities less safe. He will deliver,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming press secretary, this week.
“The moment President Trump puts his hand on that Bible and takes the Oath of Office…he will sign an executive order sealing the border shut and begin the largest deportation in American history,” adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News host Sean Hannity in late November.
