By Stefano Pozzebon, Jessie Yeung and Marlon Sorto, CNN
(CNN) — El Salvador has agreed to receive deportees from the United States of any nationality, as well as violent criminals who are US citizens currently imprisoned, in an unprecedented deal that has alarmed critics and rights groups.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the agreement on Monday after meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, as he visits several Central American countries to drive forward the Trump administration’s agenda on migration.
“In an act of extraordinary friendship to our country … (El Salvador) has agreed to the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio told reporters.
The country will continue accepting Salvadoran deportees who illegally entered the US, he said. It will also “accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren de Aragua and house them in his jails,” he said – referring to two notorious transnational gangs with members from El Salvador and Venezuela.
In addition, Bukele “has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents,” Rubio said,
Bukele confirmed the agreement on X, saying in a post, “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,” he added.
Ahead of the announcement, critics had warned that such a plan could be part of democratic backsliding.
“The US is essentially proposing to send people to a country that is not the country of origin nor is it necessarily the country that they passed through,” said Mneesha Gellman, an international politics scholar and professor at Emerson College.
“It is a bizarre and unprecedented proposal being made potentially between two authoritarian, populist, right wing leaders seeking a transactional relationship,” Gellman told CNN. “It’s not rooted in any sort of legal provision and likely violates a number of international laws relating to the rights of migrants.”
CNN has reached out to El Salvadoran officials for further details.
One of the most striking aspects of the deal is that Salvadorean law doesn’t differentiate between alleged gang members and people found guilty of a crime. Under the draconian state of emergency that has ruled the Central American country since 2022, authorities can detain anyone simply on the suspicion of being members of a gang.
Bukele has boasted a high incarceration rate as a recipe for security – El Salvador now boasts the highest such rate in the world – but human rights organizations such as Amnesty International believe many of the over 80,000 people jailed under the state of emergency are innocent.
This is a developing story.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal News Channel 3-12.
Hence then, the article about el salvador offers to house violent us criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal was published today ( ) and is available on News channel ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal )
Also on site :
- Nicotine pouch tax increase aims to protect kids, but producers and lawmakers fear impact on smokers trying to quit
- Kanye “Ye” West Reportedly Struggles to Stay Awake While Testifying at Los Angeles Mansion Trial
- Billboard Staff Reacts To & Ranks Harry Styles’ New Album ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’ .. Billboard News