The fabled Rwanda deportation plan chalked-up by the Conservative government was roundly declared a failure, after Keir Starmer ditched the policy during his first week in office this year. However, the scheme may now have piqued Donald Trump’s attention.
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According to reports in The Sun, the newly elected US President is open to sending migrants who cross the border to a third-party nation, where they will wait to have their claims processed. This, in theory, would have been what the Tories used Rwanda for.
It’s understood that the landlocked African country is just one of many independent states that could be tapped by the Trump administration, as they look to roll out one of the biggest immigration crackdowns in history. They also control the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Despite spending more than £700 million on the construction of migrant detention facilities, barely a single person was sent to Rwanda by the UK government. As the Labour attack line goes, the Tories sent more of their own ministers there than they did asylum seekers.
Trump campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket, and after winning all seven swing states, the US electorate has given the 78-year-old a substantial mandate to enact his policies. His hardline stance on border crossings has come to shape his political identity in the last decade.
The Donald’s Cabinet is also taking shape, and ultra-loyalists to the MAGA brand are now being handed plum jobs in the administration. Elon Musk, whose own immigration status has come into question recently, also landed a role in charge of government efficiency.
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