El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has offered to house convicted U.S. citizens in his country’s high-security “mega-prison” and take in deported criminal illegal migrants of any nationality, following discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio, 53, described the agreement as “the most unprecedented, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world” during a press conference in San Salvador.
The deal would allow the U.S. to deport criminal migrants to El Salvador, with the country also accepting certain convicted criminals currently serving sentences in the U.S., including American citizens and legal residents.
“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio stated, emphasizing that Bukele’s offer extended beyond undocumented migrants to include convicted U.S. criminals.
Prison Outsourcing Proposal
Bukele, 43, confirmed the agreement and revealed that El Salvador would charge the U.S. a “relatively low” fee for housing inmates in its 40,000-capacity maximum-security prison, known as the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).
“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 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.”
El Salvador’s CECOT is one of the largest and most controversial prisons in Latin America.
Government-released images from 2023 showed prisoners—many of them shirtless and tattooed—being transported by heavily armed guards and housed in overcrowded cells.
Trump’s Push for Mass Deportations
The agreement aligns with President Trump’s recent push to remove violent criminals and repeat offenders from the U.S., including some who are legal residents or citizens. Speaking to House Republicans last week, Trump, 78, emphasized his administration’s crackdown on crime.
“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 stated.
“I don’t want these violent repeat offenders in our country any more than I want illegal aliens from other countries in.”
He suggested that his administration would seek to change policies to allow broader deportations beyond undocumented 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.”
Trump also hinted at outsourcing U.S. prisoners to foreign countries willing to take them for a lower cost than the U.S. prison system.
Legal and Diplomatic Implications
A U.S. official told the Associated Press that while the Trump administration currently has no plans to deport American citizens, Bukele’s offer is significant.
Deporting U.S. citizens would likely face significant legal challenges, as it could violate constitutional rights.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce praised the agreements reached in El Salvador, saying they would “make both countries stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
As part of the deal, El Salvador has also agreed to accept all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members and Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members currently residing in the U.S. illegally.
With the agreement marking a major shift in U.S. immigration and prison policy, it remains to be seen how Congress and the courts will respond to the potential legal and human rights concerns.
