US “relocates” Iraqi refugee to Rwanda via new diplomatic arrangement

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A US State Department cable was sent from the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 13th with some major news: Rwanda said it was willing to accept deportees from the United States who are unable to be sent to their country of origin for fear of persecution. A copy of the cable reviewed by The Handbasket in March confirmed the news. And now according to a new cable, which has also been reviewed by The Handbasket, the first person has officially been deported from the US to Rwanda via this new arrangement.

The Trump administration’s efforts to deport as many people as possible is loudly and publicly underway, most notably with the 238 men who were sent to El Salvador in March without due process. Unlike those cases, however, the administration has opted to quietly send Iraqi national Omar Abdulsattar Ameen from the US to Rwanda, wherein Rwanda acts as a “third country.” But it remains unclear what legal processes allowed for this to happen.

The cable, sent today—April 22, 2025—confirms Ameen’s “relocation” has already happened. (Note: Excerpts from the cable refer to the Iraqi National as “Amen” except in one place where he is called “Ameen.” Earlier court documents and media reports refer to him as “Ameen”, so that is what I’ll be using):

The cable references a “wish list” of policy concessions provided by Rwanda and a request for “a one-time payment of $100,000 to support social services, residency documents, and work permits.” (A related note sent out today and reviewed by The Handbasket confirms the payment was made, but makes no further references to the wish list.) “Rwanda also agreed to accept another ten TCNs of various nationalities,” the cable states, adding the country “seeks a bilateral dialogue to develop a durable program to facilitate these relocations and avoid reinventing the wheel with time-intensive ad hoc negotiations.” 

“Rwanda's primary motivation for accepting Mr. Amen and subsequent TCNs [Third Country Nationals] is to improve U.S. relations and show it can advance the America First agenda,” the US embassy cable reads.

There’s also a section of the cable called “press posture” that outlines how all parties involved should approach external questions about Ameen’s relocation. It includes these three bullets:

• The United States makes no comment on any specific individuals.

• Questions about removals can be directed to the Department of Homeland Security.

• We do not speak on the deliberations or decisions of the Rwandan government.

So far neither party has made a public statement about the relocation.

The selection of Ameen as the first person to test this arrangement doesn’t seem coincidental. He was a target of deportation by the first Trump administration, which attempted to smear him as a “terrorist” and “member of ISIS” who had abused the refugee resettlement program to gain entry to the US. Ameen and his family were granted US refugee status in 2014: It wasn’t until August 2018, when the Trump administration was well underway, that “dozens of armed men” showed up at his Sacramento home to detain him.

Ameen was accused of murdering a police officer in Iraq as part of an ISIS plot, and the Trump administration was seeking to extradite him back to Iraq where he would stand trial for the alleged crime. His case was profiled in a 2020 issue of the New Yorker under the headline, “The Fight to Save an Innocent Refugee from Almost Certain Death.”

Ameen maintained throughout that he and his family were in Turkey at the time of the murder. Federal Judge Edmund F. Brennan ruled in 2021 that the Justice Department’s case was “dubious”, with “unreliable” witnesses and allegations that were “simply not plausible,” and ordered his immediate release. Once released however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—under President Biden’s control—picked him up immediately and began deportation proceedings. They claimed he did not disclose ties to a terrorist organization on his refugee application and has remained in ICE custody ever since.

On May 13th of last year, his legal team at Immigrant Legal Defense published a post on their website calling once again for Ameen’s release. They quoted a letter from the Sacramento Mayor and City Council members, stating: “We urge the immediate release of Mr. Ameen and an end to his deportation proceedings. Not only is there no basis for his continued detention or deportation, the false accusations against Mr. Ameen would place him in danger of wrongful execution were he returned to Iraq.”

In a statement from Ameen himself, he wrote at the time: “I am so grateful to the judge for listening to all the evidence, and I thank God that in this country, I had the right to defend myself and be found innocent. I love America and want to enjoy living here with my wife and children for the rest of my life. It saddens me that I still have to fight for my freedom again. Please let me go home to my family now so that I can enjoy these last few days of Ramadan with them, break my fast with them, and enjoy my first Eid with my children in over two years.”

Despite all this, Ameen became a resident of Rwanda on April 4th as a result of State Department maneuvering. 

It’s worth noting that the idea of using Rwanda as a third country is not new. In 2022, the UK government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempted a similar arrangement, passing a bill that would allow them to send migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda. The purpose was to deter people from making risky crossings across the English Channel, and Sunak promised to “stop the boats.” But the bill became mired in litigation, going all the way up to Britain’s Supreme Court, which ruled Rwanda was not a safe country for which to send asylum seekers. 

“The judges said there was evidence Rwanda had a culture that misunderstood its obligations under the Refugee Convention, was dismissive toward asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Afghanistan, and had little experience of the asylum procedures needed to handle the cases of migrants from around the world,” The AP reported in April 2024. When the Labour Party’s Keir Starmer took over as Prime Minister in July, he declared the Rwanda scheme "dead and buried" on his first day in office.

It’s unclear if this new US arrangement with Rwanda is part of the Trump administration’s larger mass deportation project, or limited to more targeted cases. But the fact that a person in US custody can be quietly sent to another country—a country to which they’ve never been—is certainly newsworthy.