Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that the United States has reached agreements with 20 foreign governments to take in illegal migrants currently living in the U.S. who decline to return to their native countries, calling the arrangements a major component of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

According to Rubio, the agreements give the United States the ability to remove certain illegal aliens to designated third-party nations considered “safe” when deportation to their homeland cannot be carried out.

“A part of securing our border is dealing with the people that are in this country unlawfully, many of whom do not want to go back to the country that they originally came from,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Rubio explained that in some situations, deportations are prevented either because the migrants’ countries of origin refuse to cooperate or because legal rulings slow or halt the removal process.

“One of the key things we have achieved is now 20 countries have signed third-country national agreements,” Rubio said. “These are safe countries where individuals who refuse to go back to their country of origin can be sent to that country instead.”

The new arrangements represent a major escalation in the administration’s deportation campaign as President Donald Trump continues pressing an aggressive immigration enforcement strategy centered on border control and the removal of illegal aliens residing in the United States.

Rubio said the State Department has coordinated extensively with the Department of Homeland Security in carrying out the policy, though he declined to reveal which countries signed the agreements or when they were completed.

The secretary also said the possibility of being deported to a third country has already persuaded some illegal migrants to agree to return home voluntarily.

“What often happens when you go to the person who’s here unlawfully and say, ‘We’re going to send you to this third country,’ is all of a sudden they decide they’d rather go back to their home country instead,” Rubio said.

Immigration enforcement has remained one of the central pillars of the Trump administration, which argues that stricter deportation measures are essential to reducing illegal crossings and restoring control at the southern border.

Administration officials have insisted that the countries participating in the agreements are regarded as secure destinations and that all deportations carried out under the program are being coordinated with U.S. immigration agencies and international partners.