WASHINGTON, May 1, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - After a controversial deal with El Salvador, the United States is negotiating more arrangements to send migrants to third countries, President Donald Trump's administration said Wednesday, with Rwanda apparently on the list.

"I say this unapologetically -- we are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a cabinet meeting led by Trump.

"That's not just El Salvador. We are working with other countries to say, we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries," he said.

Two people familiar with negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Rwanda was among the countries in talks with the United States.

Rwanda, one of the most stable countries in Africa, had reached a deal with Britain's former Conservative government to accept deported migrants in return for payment.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government, which took office in July last year, killed the arrangement before it could start.

El Salvador has been taking in its own citizens as well as Venezuelan migrants, as Trump carries out a mass deportation drive.

The arrangement has created a furor, especially after a US official acknowledged that authorities mistakenly expelled one Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but that the United States could not bring him back.

The US Supreme Court has ordered the government to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who has not been charged with any crime and had a judge's order against deportation.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has pursued mass incarceration to curb crime in his country and has offered to take prisoners for a fraction of the price the United States would pay at home.

Rubio on a visit to El Salvador said that Bukele was ready to accept US citizens, although the Trump administration has acknowledged legal concerns with incarcerating Americans in another country.