U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has agreed to accept deported criminal illegal immigrants from the United States of any nationality, in what he called the “most unprecedented” migratory agreement in the world.
At a signing ceremony for a civil nuclear agreement with El Salvador’s foreign minister, Rubio said that Bukele has offered his “full cooperation” in U.S. illegal immigrant deportation efforts, including agreeing to take in “dangerous American criminals” with U.S. citizenship.
He did not specify which offenses would warrant the transfer of convicted U.S. citizens to the Central American nation but said that further details on the agreement would be forthcoming.
Rubio said that Bukele has also agreed to accept the deportation of El Salvador’s citizens who illegally entered the United States and criminal illegal immigrants of any nationality, including members of Latin American gangs such as El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
The state secretary hailed Bukele’s offer to house deported criminal illegal immigrants from the United States as “an act of extraordinary friendship to our country” and said he had spoken with President Donald Trump about it.
Bukele confirmed in a statement that he agreed to house U.S. criminal deportees in El Salvador’s “mega-prison” in exchange for an unspecified fee from the United States.
The El Salvadorian president said the fee would be “relatively low for the U.S.” but “significant” enough to help make his nation’s prison system sustainable.
The agreement was reached during a Feb. 3 meeting between Rubio and Bukele, which the U.S. State Department described as “tremendously successful” for both sides.
The meeting also covered other issues, with Rubio discussing “strategies to counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party” in the Western hemisphere, Bruce stated.
Rubio was visiting El Salvador as part of his five-nation Central American tour—which also included Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. The diplomatic trip focused on curbing illegal immigration, countering China’s influence in the region, and strengthening economic partnerships with the nations.
The United States was concerned that an agreement Panama signed in 2017 to join the Chinese Communist Party’s global Belt and Road infrastructure project—following its decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan—could potentially grant China unacceptable control over the waterway. Meanwhile, El Salvador severed ties with Taiwan in 2018 and switched allegiance to China.
The State Department’s information webpage for traveling to El Salvador described prison conditions in the country as “harsh and dangerous,” stating that overcrowding in detention centers could pose “a serious threat” to prisoners’ health. The webpage stated that “in many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
