To many Americans, the Trump administration’s announcement that undocumented immigrants will be sent to Rwanda and possibly South Sudan was another “blip” in the quotidian news barrage. Not for me. I’ve followed Rwanda’s development since the 1994 genocide, and South Sudan since its independence from the Arab North in 2011. Sending folks rounded up every day by ICE to these and other African countries is unsafe and unwise. I wish Congress harbored the same reservations and asked more questions of our government.

The idea was originally Rishi Sunak’s. The British government and Rwanda had agreed that people who entered Britain illegally would be flown to Rwanda even though it was unclear what would become of them there. Would they be Rwanda’s new immigrants? Would they get jobs and Rwanda citizenship?

Many in the British Commons and courts opposed the scheme. No one was deported to Africa from Britain. Keir Starmer’s new government abrogated the agreement with Rwanda.

Trump, mimicking Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda gambit, has added South Sudan and Libya — some of the most unstable places on earth — to the list for the unfortunate souls whose one big mistake was to seek a better life or to escape torture and death in their home countries. I can see Haitians who escaped death at the hands of gangs ending up in South Sudan, a place of as much turmoil as Port au Prince. It is an unfair and unwise plan. And because the undocumented aliens are being sent to Africa in our name, we should at least express our opposition.

Sunak’s plan to send the undocumented migrants to Rwanda was a form of deterrent; to discourage others from trying to enter Britain. It’s been questioned as to how many folks jumping into crowded boats crossing the English Channel knew that they might end up in Rwanda. From my experience, people seeking a better life, a better world, pay attention to only one light — the light of their destination: many drown; some arrive at their destinations; others are apprehended and deported.

My other question is: Why would an African government want to meddle in American politics? Didn’t they hear Trump’s vituperative descriptions of their homelands? Interestingly, it’s a nonissue. In fact South Sudan hired an American firm — Gainful Solutions — to lobby the Trump administration. A planeload of migrants from the U.S. would be the best present to President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. The fate of Haitians, Cubans or Chinese who might end up in Juba or Kigali does not concern us.

I must praise Rwanda’s President Kagame for an excellent job of showing the world that his country has traveled many miles from the 1994 genocide. The country has leapfrogged forward to become a beacon of light in Central Africa. Compared with her neighbor, the DRC, Rwanda might be minuscule; but her roar is heard the world over. That’s the reason for Rishi Sunak’s plan and now for Trump’s decision to reward Kagame with large sums of money in exchange for reception of our unwanted migrants.

Kagame and Salva Kiir of Sudan are made of distinctly different molds. One is a brilliant intellect and tactician; the other an illiterate warlord, whose government has caused as much pain to Black Sudanese as their erstwhile Arab rulers.

Kagame’s leadership of Rwanda has resulted in large aid grants and western projects, while adding British and American attention gives Rwanda greater international prestige.

In the end though, financial compensation outstrips other considerations. Rwanda was paid $330 million by the United Kingdom; it is unclear how much the U.S. is paying Rwanda, South Sudan, Libya, Djibouti and others.

This idea of the U.S. sending undocumented immigrants to places they are unfamiliar with is unwise. People who traveled so far and endured so much with one objective — to reach the “promised land”— are not evil, nor criminals, despite Trump’s name-calling. Most are as good as many Americans.

What Trump has done by repeating the same mantra — “They are rapists, murderers, and drug dealers”— is false. But his followers have adopted it as they have adopted many of his untruths. Despite that, most immigrants are hard-working, honest people who only need a break.

Arrest them, and if legally justified, deport them to their homes, or jail them in America. But do not send them to burnt earth places of desolation — Libya, South Sudan or Djibouti.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students ‘STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”