Tiny African country detaining five deported US migrants asked Trump team for $500 million: report

Tiny African country detaining five deported US migrants asked Trump team for 0 million: report

A small African nation currently imprisoning five immigrants deported from the United States reportedly asked the Trump administration for half a billion dollars to detain them.

The administration resumed a policy of deporting immigrant detainees to so-called third countries in July, starting with the tiny African nation of Eswatini. Eswatini’s government at one point requested millions of dollars in exchange, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

Those documents also show that Eswatini was open to detaining 150 people from other nations for more than $10 million from the United States, the newspaper reported.

Eswatini diplomats told The Independent in July that they were blindsided by the Trump administration’s plan to send a group of men with criminal convictions to their country; they had only learned about the flights from social media.

Eswatini officials said they plan to arrange for those detainees to be sent back to their countries of origin, while activists in the country are challenging what they say is an unconstitutional secret agreement with the Trump administration.

The Eswatini government said the men “will be repatriated” and the United Nations International Organization for Migration is working with the country to “facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin.”

Nearly two months later, those men remain imprisoned in Eswatini.

Officials there had also asked whether the United States expected the deportees to be put on trial and sentenced by local officials once they arrived, according to The Times.

The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security, Eswatini officials and the UN’s International Organization for Migration for comment.

One of those deported men, Orville Etoria, had completed a prison sentence in 2021 after he was convicted of murder in New York in 1996. He was deported to Eswatini in July, and he is reportedly locked up in Matsapha Correctional Complex despite not facing any new criminal charges.

The Jamaican citizen arrived in the United States on a green card in 1976 at age 12, but an immigration judge revoked his permissions while he was incarcerated. After he was released, he was allowed to legally live and work in the country on the condition that he complete regular check-in appointments with immigration authorities.

The 62-year-old completed a bachelor’s degree while behind bars, then began working at a men’s shelter and pursued a master’s degree in divinity after his release, The Times reported.

Homeland Security officials labeled Etoria and the other men sent to Eswatini “depraved monsters” who are “so uniquely barbaric” that those countries won’t accept them.

Jamaican officials rejected the administration’s claim that the country is not cooperating.