The United States of America has not notified the Romanian side about its intentions to relocate some Romanian citizens from American territory to other institutions, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

„Romania and the U.S. have an active partnership of cooperation in security matters developed over several years. This includes border security and combating illegal immigration”, the MAE informs.

The Romanian ministry states that some of the Romanian citizens imprisoned in the U.S. can return to the country.

„Since the beginning of this year, we have been in contact with the American side, in particular with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and, according to existing data, the number of Romanian citizens in U.S. centers is lower than the figure presented, and for a considerable part of them, the formalities necessary for returning to the country have been finalized”, the MAE also indicates.

The Romanian Embassy to the United States announced on Wednesday that 47 Romanian citizens whose deportation formalities have been finalized are in custody at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers and that their transfer to the Guantanamo naval base is not being considered.

In fact, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, published on the X platform a photo with a text claiming that the Trump Administration will transfer citizens from allied states to Guantanamo. „This story is fake news. This is not happening,” she commented.

Romania cooperates closely with all American agencies to ensure border security and migration control in the United States. Up to this date, there has been no situation that would determine the placement of Romanian citizens in facilities outside the United States. As a rule, Romanian citizens identified as having an illegal status on American territory are returned to Romania based on established procedures in the line of Romanian-American cooperation, the Romanian Embassy stated in a statement sent to AGERPRES.

The embassy is in constant contact with the American authorities to clarify the situation of Romanian citizens who are in a situation of being sent to Romania.

The embassy’s clarifications come after the daily Politico reported on Tuesday, citing documents to which it had access, that 100 Romanians in an illegal situation are being considered for transfer to Guantanamo.

Romania’s Embassy to the United States took note of the information reported in the article in the daily Politico and immediately requested the American authorities to confirm the accuracy of the information.

According to the article, the Trump administration plans to ramp up the transfer of undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay starting this week, with at least 9,000 people being screened for transfer. Transfers to Guantanamo could begin as early as Wednesday, the documents show. The detainees are expected to be held there temporarily before being deported to their home countries.

The official reason for the transfers is to free up space for beds in detention centers on U.S. soil, but using the notorious facility, which has long held terror suspects, would also send another signal aimed at discouraging illegal immigration to the United States.

The plans were finalized only in recent days and could be subject to change, the documents show. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not notify the countries of the affected individuals in advance, according to the documents.

Spokespeople for DHS and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

About 800 Europeans – including one Austrian, 100 Romanians and 170 Russians – are being considered for the transfers, according to a document.

AGERPRES