United States: The United States extradited a formerly resettled Iraqi refugee to Rwanda after Iraqi authorities stated he participated with ISIS according to both a U.S. official and internal correspondence, as reported by Reuters.
Refugee Status Under Scrutiny
A judge declared in 2021 that Iraqi allegations of IS activity against Omar Abdulsattar Ameen lacked credibility based on evidence presented in 2019. Ameen received U.S. refugee status in 2014.
Joe Biden, along with Donald Trump, worked to get him deported from the United States when they claimed he deceived his refugee application through his lack of terrorist group contact statements.
When Trump began his second term in January of 2017 he started a broad anti-immigration strategy while attempting to halt the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
#US deports #Iraqi man at center of debate on refugee policy https://t.co/8rTvEQJody pic.twitter.com/WQosiYcpYN
— Arab News (@arabnews) April 24, 2025
The U.S. official confirmed to Reuters through an internal email and an anonymous source that Ameen arrived in Rwanda during the month of January this year.
The U.S. State Department spokesperson refused to comment about Ameen’s situation and Homeland Security did not respond immediately to our request for comment.
The government of Rwanda officially declined to provide any response when asked about this matter.
Rwanda Becomes Destination of Choice for Deportations
The Handbasket published the first report about Ameen’s deportation by using a leaked U.S. embassy cable from Kigali that detailed Rwanda’s agreement to accept more third-country nationals under their “new removal program.”
The Reuters journalists failed to verify both the message content of the cable and the reported U.S.-Rwanda agreement.
Western countries view Rwanda as their preferred location to relocate foreign nationals they wish to remove.
In 2022, the government of Ireland agreed to accept thousands of asylum seekers from Britain, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer vetoed the arrangement after taking office last year.
Case Used to Justify Hardline Immigration Policy
When authorities arrested Ameen in 2018 for murder in Iraq, the first Trump administration, together with specific Republican members of Congress, used his case to demonstrate the security threats refugees create as support for stopping U.S. refugee resettlement, as reported by Reuters.
The U.S. magistrate denied extraditing Ameen to Iraq in 2021 because Turkish refugee records demonstrated he resided there when the murder allegedly occurred. Yet, U.S. officials pursued a diplomatic solution for deportation to an unspecified nation.