They're Turning The Whole World Into A Gulag -- Digby, The Intercept

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2025/06/25/theyre-turning-the-whole-world-into-a-gulag/

Look what Li’l Marco’s up to now:

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 Trump administration began using the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, as a foreign prison to disappear Venezuelan immigrants in March. 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.

What does that look like?

Anwen Hughes, the senior director of legal strategy for refugee programs at Human Rights First, noted that there were Mexican nationals held in south Texas set to be deported to both Libya and South Sudan. “The Mexican border is right there. I’ve been doing immigration detention work for a very long time. I’ve never in my life seen Mexico refuse to take back one of its nationals, ever,” she told The Intercept. “The U.S. appears to be looking for really implausible destinations to send people. It’s not just punitive, it’s deliberately terrifying and honestly perverse.”

They want to punish undocumented immigrants. And keep in mind that the vast, vast majority are not criminals.

Read the whole thing. This plot is diabolical.

“I truly worry these places will become way stations or bridges for deportation from the U.S. to home countries,” Schacher told The Intercept. “Bhutan, not a signatory, has already accepted Nepalese from the U.S. and basically dumped them at the Indian border.”

We are rapidly becoming the worst country in the world.