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As the Trump administration has carried out its crackdown on illegal immigration, Americans have begun to see little-known countries like the African absolute monarchy of Eswatini in headlines increasingly often. Though obscure, these tiny countries, including Eswatini, can play a “vital role” in U.S. national security, according to a border and immigration expert.
With over 515,000 total deportations since inauguration day and 600,000 expected by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, the administration is on track to blow past the record number of deportations in a single year.
Even with these large numbers, the administration has been hit with court rulings that have slowed down its deportations. In many instances, such as in the case of alleged MS-13 gang member and Salvadoran illegal Kilmar Abrego Garcia, illegal immigrants can further delay their deportation by arguing that returning to their home country poses a risk to their safety or well-being.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Simon Hankinson, a border and immigration senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, explained that this is where third-party countries come into play.
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador earlier this year, and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura, left, arrive for a check-in at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025 (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He said the ability to still deport illegal aliens who claim risk of injury or torture in their home country denies them an effective “veto” on deportation. Hankinson said that while U.S. immigration law allows for these third-party deportee countries, some countries in Europe cannot do the same, with disastrous results.
“With a good lawyer and a lot of BS, even the worst of the worst are able to remain in European countries where some of them kill people, rape people, do horrible things,” he explained. “So, the United States does not want to be in that position.”
“Our law allows us, if we can’t send someone back to their home country, we can send them back to a country in which they resided for some time, or in which have gotten protection before or in a pinch to another country that will accept them and will not torture them or otherwise abuse them,” he said.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released this image, writing on X that “deportation flights have begun” early on this year. (White House)
In the U.S., however, illegal immigrants can continue arguing that they face torture or harm in third-party countries that the government proposes deporting them to.
“If you look at someone like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his home country is El Salvador. That’s where he’s from. He was ordered, deported, given a final order of removal some years ago, but the judge said you can’t send him back … to El Salvador. But that was the one exception. He could have been sent anywhere else in the world. And so ever since then, the government has been trying to send him to other countries that will accept him. And in each case, I believe it’s 22 countries now, he’s claimed that he’s under threat of torture or abuse if he goes to those countries,” explained Hankinson.
Then there are recalcitrant countries that refuse to take their nationals back, such as how China, Russia and India have done in the past.
As a result, Hankinson said the Trump administration has sought out new countries to partner with to send deportees to.
“We’re the United States, we’ve got leverage, we have carrots and sticks to try to get countries to take their people back,” said Hankinson, noting that that these third-party country agreements can serve as one of those “sticks.”
Thus far, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of illegal aliens to third-party countries including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini.
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King Mswati III of Eswatini appears in Pretoria, South Africa, May 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
On Sept. 5, the Department of Homeland Security sent Abrego Garcia’s lawyers a notice that in light of his fears of persecution in 22 other countries, he would be deported to Eswatini.
“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries,” the DHS notice read. “Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa.”
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a tiny landlocked country largely surrounded by South Africa. It has a population of approximately 1.2 million people who are ruled over by the last absolute monarch in Africa, King Mswati III.
Hankinson said that countries such as Eswatini can benefit from these mutually beneficial deals. While the U.S. rids itself of some of the excess illegal immigrants in the country while the third-party countries gain America’s good will, which can result in increased trade or assistance.
Though the numbers being sent to these third-party countries are small relative to the numbers being sent back to their home countries, Hankinson said he thinks these operations can be scaled up.
“I would think that the Trump administration would want to have as many of these deals as possible. So, that when you get a really lawyered up dude like Kilmar, no matter how many times he claims that he can’t go to country A, B or C, out of the 195 countries in the world, eventually he’s going to run out, and we’re going to be able to send him somewhere,” he said.
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In this handout photo provided by the Salvadoran government, guards escort the inmates allegedly linked to criminal organizations at CECOT on March 16, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Trump’s administration deported 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organizations ‘Tren De Aragua’ and Mara Salvatrucha to CECOT. (Salvadoran Government via Getty Images)
Hankinson said that this ability is “vital” to national security.
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“If an alien has a veto on being sent home, then it’s a one-way street. It’s just a ratchet and never goes back down again,” he said.
“There are a lot of people who were let in under the Biden administration, thousands of people, who have criminal records back home that we know nothing about, and they’re sooner or later going to victimize American citizens,” he went on. “The power of these agreements is that they make everyone understand that one way or another, if you have to leave, we’re going to find someone to take you.”
