Perspective: Will Moldova Participate in MAGA Renderings?

A look at a New York Times report that Moldova offered to take "deportees"

Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has made deporting people he calls “illegal aliens” one of the focal points of his administration. Efforts to effect as many deportations as possible have led to a raft of abuses as the US administration has increasingly used authoritarian tactics - such as Federalizing the National Guard over the objections of California’s Governor - and lawless actions - such as the illegal deportations of people with a legal right to be in the country.

Some cases are simply Kafkaesque, as with the story of a Canadian actress who spent multiple weeks essentially lost in a sprawling detention system, often chained up, until her friends alerted CNN to her story. You can watch her explain this all here.

Even more alarming are the cases of men who were deported, or more properly rendered¹, to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was accidentally deported to El Salvador and imprisoned there indefinitely, with no contact with lawyers or prospect of a trial, has alleged that he was tortured while he was in CECOT. He was eventually returned to the United States where he faces criminal charges in an unrelated (and dubious) case.

The El Salvadorian government’s position is that all those in CECOT are “terrorists” and that they “will never leave.” These people have no contact with lawyers and have mostly not appeared in court for trials or formal convictions. Certainly, none of those deported from the US to CECOT are there serving official sentences.

Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay stylist and hair dresser who legally entered the United States for an appointment to make an asylum claim was also deported and imprisoned in CECOT. He has had no contact with lawyers or his family for months. Andry was grabbed by masked men and rendered to a place beyond the law. He almost certainly has no idea that people like us know his name and story, and that there are people advocating for his return.

You might be wondering what all of this has to do with Moldova, and it’s a fair question. As terrible as these stories are, and as alarming as it is to see the rule of law so completely rejected by the US President, this is only the beginning. On July 4th the US Congress passed the absurdly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which provides around $170 billion dollars² to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the construction of prisons and more. Previously, resources were a major constraint - that problem will soon be gone.

In parallel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quoted by the New York Times speaking to a cabinet meeting about expanding the foreign detention system saying:

“We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries, and will you do that as a favor to us?’ And the farther away from America the better, so they can’t come back across the border.”

…and the Times reports that Moldova is on the list of countries that may accept “deportees” from 3rd countries.

So today we’re going to look into what this and other reporting has said, how it might work and what this would mean for Moldova.