The United States deports immigrants to the unconnected Kingdom of Eswatini – Country
The U.S. sent five immigrants to the African country’s Eswatini, an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation program, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
The United States has deported eight soldiers to another African country in South Sudan after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries without contact. The South Sudan government has declined to disclose where the people, also described as violent criminals, were detained nearly two weeks ago.
In a late-night post on X, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said five men sent to Eswatini, Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, have arrived at a deportation plane.
She said they were all convicted criminals and “individually unique savages that their country refused to bring them back.”
McLaughlin added that these people “has been terrorizing the American community” but are now “off the road from American soil.”
McLaughlin said they were convicted of crimes including murder and rape, one of which was a “confirmed” gang member. Her social media posts include men’s cup footage, and she talks about their criminal records and sentences. They are not named.
It is unclear whether the individuals have been deported or detained in immigration operations, and the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
The people, known as “prisoners” and “prisoners”, were held in an isolated unit of an unnamed correctional facility in Eswatini, but considered a means of transport and will eventually be sent back to its home country, the Eswatini government said on Wednesday.
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The Esvatini government said in a series of articles about X that the United States will work with UN immigration agencies to facilitate this. It does not give time frames, but says it will ensure “due process and respect for human rights” during the repatriation process.
Historically, four of the five countries on these issues resisted the issue when people were deported from the United States, and even before the Trump administration, this issue was a key issue in homeland security. Some countries refuse to take back any of their citizens, while others do not accept people who commit crimes in the United States
Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is a country with about 1.2 million people between South Africa and Mozambique.
It is the last absolute monarchy in the world and the last in Africa. King Mswati III has been ruled by law since 1986.
Political parties have been effectively banned, and pro-democracy groups have said for years that Mswati III destroyed political dissent, sometimes violent.
In 2021, pro-democracy protests broke out in Eswatini, with dozens of them allegedly killed by security forces. Esvatini authorities are accused of political assassination of pro-democracy activists and imprisonment of others.
The Trump administration said it is seeking more deals with African countries to seize deportation from five West African countries that met President Donald Trump at the White House last week, saying immigration issues and their country could deportation from the U.S.
Some countries have already postponed. Nigeria is not part of the White House summit, he said it rejected the pressure from the U.S. to expel citizens of other countries.
The United States also sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama, but has identified Africa as a continent where it may find more governments willing to reach a deportation agreement.
Rwanda’s foreign minister told the Associated Press last month that negotiations are being held with the United States on a deal to receive deported immigrants. A dismissal of a British government plan to announce the deportation of asylum-seekers to Rwanda in 2022 was ruled illegal by the UK Supreme Court last year.
Eight men, expelled from the war-torn South Sudan by the United States, arrived earlier this month after spending weeks at a U.S. military base in Djibouti on the northeastern Ethiopia border over the case regarding the legality of sending them there.
The South Sudan government has not released details of the agreement with the United States to take over the deported people, nor has it said what will happen to those people. The famous civil society leader there said South Sudan is not a garbage dump for criminals. ”
Analysts say some African countries may be willing to accept people deported by third countries in exchange for U.S. negotiations on tariffs, foreign aid and investment, and restrictions on travel visas.
The Eswatini government said that the arrangements with the United States do not have any security threat to the Eswatini people. “This exercise is the result of months of powerful advanced engagement between the U.S. government and Esvatini,” it said.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
