El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has supplied for unlawful immigrants – of any nationality – going through deportation within the U.S. to be booked in his nation’s jail system in alternate for a charge.
This proposal comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Bukele at his lakeside nation home outdoors San Salvador on Monday.
“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X Monday night time. “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
Rubio mentioned the Salvadoran president “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.”
RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AGENDA
Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP)
“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio informed reporters, referring to unlawful immigrants behind bars in U.S. prisons. “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 U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
Whereas Bukele did lengthen the provide to incorporate violent American criminals, it’s extremely unlikely that a part of the provide would really occur, since it’s unlawful to deport U.S. residents. A U.S. official mentioned the Trump administration has no plans to deport Americans, however famous that Bukele’s provide was important.
The proposal with El Salvador, referred to as a “safe third country” settlement, may probably be an choice for Venezuelan gang members convicted within the U.S. if Venezuela refuses to simply accept them, and Rubio mentioned Bukele supplied to simply accept detainees of any nationality.
Bukele additionally mentioned he would take again all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members within the U.S. illegally, and promised to simply accept and incarcerate felony unlawful aliens from any nation, particularly these affiliated with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
Manuel Flores, the secretary common of the leftist opposition celebration Farabundo Martí Nationwide Liberation Entrance, argued that the “safe third country” plan would paint the area because the U.S. authorities’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES VENEZUELA WILL TAKE CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BACK
Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP)
Rubio was visiting El Salvador to push for extra assist in supporting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan. He arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight carrying 43 unlawful immigrants depart from Panama for Colombia.
The deportation flight had 32 males and 11 girls detained by Panamanian authorities after illegally crossing the Darien Hole from Colombia. The State Division mentioned the deportations ship a message of deterrence.
“Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era,” Rubio mentioned afterward. “It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognize that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimized along the way, and it’s not good for anyone.”
Rubio is almost half manner achieved along with his Central America tour after Monday’s go to to El Salvador. (AP)
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Rubio’s journey comes throughout a sweeping freeze on U.S. overseas help and stop-work orders which have shut down taxpayer-funded packages concentrating on unlawful immigration and crime in Central America. The State Division mentioned that the secretary had accepted waivers for sure essential packages in nations he’s visiting.
The secretary will proceed to induce overseas leaders to do extra to assist the U.S. fight unlawful immigration, together with in his subsequent stops in Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, that are a part of his five-nation Central American tour following the visits to Panama and El Salvador.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
