Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted in this week's Cabinet meeting of the United States' deportation agreements with other countries — but a prominent immigration expert slammed his remarks as a bald falsehood.
"One of the things we’ve achieved is we have 20 countries around the world who have signed agreements to allow us to deport people to those countries," said Rubio in the meeting, adding that these are "safe" countries.
But at least some of them are nothing of the sort, pointed out American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on X.
"Note that Rubio claims these are 'safe countries,' which is total nonsense," wrote Reichlin-Melnick, focusing on the fact that one of these "safe" countries is the Congo — which according to Reuters, even that country's own officials say is not safe when the first batch of deportees from a completely unrelated country arrived.
"Once in Congo, the deportees were told they had been granted a seven-day visa allowing them to move freely in the country, which could be extended for up to three months," the report detailed, as told by a migrant from Colombia. "The group was also informed that they were welcome to apply for asylum in Congo, though officials discouraged them from doing so, warning that Congo was dangerous."
This comes at a moment when Rubio, considered by some Beltway insiders to be a serious challenger to J.D. Vance as Trump's successor, is facing scrutiny in other areas, including a war of words with the World Health Organization over the latest Ebola outbreak.