The president of El Salvador on Monday offered to house convicted US citizens in his country’s “mega-prison” and take in deported criminal illegal migrants of any nationality after a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio, 53, said the deal struck with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele represents “the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” in remarks from the capital city of San Salvador.
“We can send them and he will put them in his jails,” the secretary of state said of migrants set to be deported from the US. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”
Bukele, 43, indicated that he will charge the US a “relatively low” fee if it decides to use his nation’s notorious 40,000-person capacity maximum-security prison.
“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X.
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee,” he added. “The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism is one of the largest prisons in Latin America.
Photos released by the government of El Salvador last year showed prison guards in riot gear moving shirtless, heavily tattooed inmates around the facility, where groups of detainees appear to be housed together in cramped cells.
President Trump suggested in a speech to House Republicans last week that he was keen on removing “violent criminals” and “repeat offenders” from the country, and not necessarily only those in the country illegally.
“We also have many violent criminals in our country, however, that did not necessarily come here illegally but have been arrested 30 times, 35 times, 41, 42 times … for murder [and] other heinous charges,” Trump said as he remarked on his effort to crackdown on illegal immigration.
“I don’t want these violent repeat offenders in our country any more than I want illegal aliens from other countries in,” he stressed.
Trump, 78, also hinted that he may try to get a change in policy to broaden out deportations beyond illegal immigrants.
“This is subject to getting it approved, but if they’ve been arrested many, many times [and] they’re repeat offenders by many numbers, I want them out of our country,” he said. “I also will be seeking permission to do so.”
“We’re going to get approval, hopefully, to get them the hell out of our country.”
The president noted that he would expect any foreign country willing to hold US prisoners to charge a “very small fee” that would be lower than the “massive amounts of money” it costs to house inmates in the US.
A US official told the Associated Press Monday that the Trump administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens, but noted that Bukele’s offer was significant.
Any effort to deport American citizens would almost certainly be met with significant legal challenges.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the agreements struck in El Salvador “will make both countries stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
Bruce noted that the deal Bukele agreed to includes accepting all Savadorean MS-13 gang members and Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members in the US unlawfully.
