(NewsNation) — White House officials are looking for new countries willing to accept deported migrants from the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
This is similar to something seen about two months ago in February when the Trump administration struck a one-time deal with Panama to send about 100 undocumented migrants to that country. Most of those migrants were from the Middle East. Panama worked to send them to their home countries.
The Trump administration is looking to do that again with other places. It is offering financial incentives as well as political benefits to countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Some of the countries the administration is in talks with have previously been flagged by the U.S. for human rights abuses, especially against migrants and detainees, according to the WSJ. However, for the Trump administration, an arrangement with the countries would make it so they don’t have to negotiate with countries like Venezuela, which have been slower or even unwilling to take back migrants.
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Border czar Tom Homan recently talked about this, saying that if one country doesn’t take migrants, other “countries are lining up to take people back.”
Officials familiar with the matter told WSJ that what happens next to the deported migrants depends on which nation they are sent to. The United States is “agnostic,” the officials said, on whether they would be able to ask for asylum or be deported to their own country.
These developments come as some of Trump’s deportation plans see legal challenges.
A State Department spokesperson, in a statement to WSJ, said, “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.”
