U.S. seeking deportation deals with Angola, Equatorial Guinea

The Trump administration has approached far-flung countries to aid its mass deportation effort, asking nations like Angola and Equatorial Guinea to accept migrants who are not their citizens, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News.

The talks are part of an intense diplomatic campaign by the Trump administration to convince as many nations as possible — including those with controversial human rights records — to receive deportees from the U.S., such as migrants whose home countries won't take them back.

The administration has already brokered agreements with several Latin American countries willing to accept migrants who are not their own. In February, the U.S. deported hundreds of African and Asian migrants to Costa Rica and Panama. In March, the Trump administration sent nearly 300 Venezuelans accused of being gang members to El Salvador, which imprisoned them at an infamous mega-prison.

Guatemala has also agreed to take in third country deportees from the U.S. The Mexican government, under a deal that preceded Mr. Trump's second term, has been receiving migrants from other Latin American countries, like Venezuela, caught crossing the U.S. southern border illegally.

But behind the scenes, the Trump administration has been negotiating with countries outside of the Western Hemisphere to send migrants thousands of miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean, to places in Africa and Europe.

The Eastern Hemisphere countries that the Trump administration has identified as places that could potentially accept deportations of third country nationals include Angola, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Libya, Moldova and Rwanda, according to the internal government documents and officials. The U.S. has yet to announce any formal deals with these nations.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the internal talks with some of these countries in April. The negotiations with Angola and Equatorial Guinea have not been previously reported.

It's unclear who exactly would be sent to the third countries if any deportation arrangements are finalized. But one of the ideas under consideration, the internal government documents show, would be for the U.S. to use the agreements to deport suspected members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang Mr. Trump has made into a focal point of his crackdown on illegal immigration.

How deportees would be treated by governments that are not their own is also an open question. As part of its arrangement with El Salvador, for example, the U.S. agreed to give the Salvadoran government millions of dollars to detain Venezuelans deemed to be Tren de Aragua members.

Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security referred questions about the deportation negotiations, and how the potential agreements would work, to the Department of State, which did not immediately comment on CBS News' reporting.

The embassies of Angola, Benin, Eswatini, Libya, Moldova and Rwanda did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for the embassy of Equatorial Guinea said the "Embassy is not aware of any such conversations going on between the two governments."

In recent years, Western countries bedeviled by migration crises and the accompanying political backlash have sought to forge diplomatic agreements that allow them to re-route migrants and asylum-seekers to third countries.

The first Trump administration convinced El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to sign "safe third country" deals that allowed the U.S. to divert migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border to those countries; though only one of the deals was implemented before they were scrapped by the Biden administration.

In 2022, the United Kingdom brokered a "safe third country" deal with Rwanda, but it was ultimately discontinued amid intense controversy and legal challenges. Under another arrangement, Albania agreed to host migrants in Italian custody, though that effort has been partially blocked by judges.

Andrew Selee, the president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based research group, said there are many legal, political and humanitarian questions about the agreements the Trump administration is considering, including whether the U.S. will try to ensure deportees are not mistreated in the receiving countries.

A court ruling from April prohibited the Trump administration from sending deportees to a third country without informing them of the destination and allowing them to be screened for any concerns they have about being harmed there.

But Selee said the deportation deals, even if they're limited in scope or held up in court, are principally designed to deter migrants from entering or staying in the U.S. illegally.

"It sends a message that will scare off people from coming unauthorized to the U.S.," Selee said. "And it allows them to say that they can deport people from any nationality somewhere."

Standing alongside Mr. Trump during a White House cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the Trump administration was "actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries."

"We are working with other countries to say, 'we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries," Rubio said. "'Would you do that, as a favor to us? And the further away from America, the better.'"

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.

Camilo Montoya-Galvez