We Used to Build Roads and Bridges in Other Countries. Trump Wants Prisons Instead.

Is it possible for a nation of Reichstags to develop a world full of gulags, or does that stretch historical analogies beyond the breaking point? Let’s let the Intercept settle this question.

An Intercept investigation finds that the Trump administration has been hard at work trying to expand its global gulag for expelled immigrants, exploring deals with a quarter of the world’s nations to accept so-called third-country nationals—deported persons who are not their citizens. To create this archipelago of injustice, the U.S. government is employing strong-arm tactics with dozens of smaller, weaker, and economically dependent nations. The deals are being conducted in secret, and neither the State Department nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will discuss them. With the green light from the Supreme Court, thousands of immigrants are in danger of being disappeared into this network of deportee dumping grounds.

I’m old enough to remember the spirit that animated things like the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress. Yes, there was in that spirit a dollop of paternalism edging toward a soft colonialism. But along the way, people got roads and bridges, schools, and safe water systems. Now we’re offering them money so they’ll help us outsource our crimes against humanity. And who is the primary pitchman for this inhumanity? Marco Rubio, the Incredible Shrinking Politician, lost now forever in the president’s pocket, next to the crumbled Adderall.

A recent memo by Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that the Trump administration threatened dozens of nations with a travel ban while dangling third-country deportation deals to avoid the restrictions. An investigation by The Intercept finds that, with this new gambit, the U.S. has reportedly pursued deals with at least 53 countries, including many that are beset by conflict or terrorist violence or that the State Department has excoriated for human rights abuses. The State Department refused to provide a list of countries with which the U.S. has made agreements to accept deportees from third countries, citing the sensitivity of diplomatic communications.

The Intercept—using open-source information—found that the U.S. has also explored, sought, or struck agreements with Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Egypt, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Let us create a world of jails ... for freedom.