By MATTHEW LEE, Related Press
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left El Salvador on Tuesday with an settlement from that nation’s president to just accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, together with violent American criminals now imprisoned in america.
President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio mentioned after assembly with Bukele at his lakeside nation home exterior San Salvador for a number of hours late Monday.
“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio mentioned of migrants of all nationalities detained in america. “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.”
Rubio was visiting El Salvador to press a pleasant authorities to do extra to satisfy President Donald Trump’s calls for for a serious crackdown on immigration.
Bukele confirmed the provide in a put up on X, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.” He mentioned his nation would settle for solely “convicted criminals” and would cost a payment that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
Elon Musk, the billionaire working with Trump to remake the federal authorities, responded on his X platform, “Great idea!!”
After Rubio spoke, a U.S. official mentioned Trump’s Republican administration had no present plans to attempt to deport Americans however referred to as Bukele’s provide vital. The U.S. authorities can’t deport Americans, and such a transfer can be met with vital authorized challenges.
The State Division describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” On its present nation info webpage it says, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
El Salvador has lived below a state of emergency since March 2022, when the nation’s highly effective avenue gangs went on a killing rampage. Bukele responded by suspending elementary rights like entry to legal professionals, and authorities have arrested greater than 83,000 folks with little to no due course of.
In 2023, Bukele opened a large new jail with capability for 40,000 gang members and boasted about serving just one meal per day. Prisoners there don’t obtain visits, and there are not any packages making ready them for reinsertion into society after their sentences and no workshops or academic packages.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
El Salvador, as soon as some of the harmful international locations on this planet, closed final 12 months with a file low 114 homicides, a newfound safety that has propelled Bukele’s hovering reputation within the nation of about 6 million residents.
Rubio arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants go away from Panama for Colombia. That got here a day after Rubio delivered a warning to Panama that until the federal government moved instantly to get rid of China’s presence at the Panama Canal, the U.S. would act to take action.
Migration, although, was the principle concern of the day, as will probably be for the following stops on Rubio’s five-nation Central American tour of Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic after Panama and El Salvador.
His tour is going down at a time of turmoil in Washington over the standing of the federal government’s major international growth company.
Trump’s administration prioritizes stopping folks from making the journey to america and has labored with regional international locations to spice up immigration enforcement on their borders in addition to to just accept deportees from america.
The settlement Rubio described for El Salvador to just accept international nationals arrested in america for violating U.S. immigration legal guidelines is called a “safe third country” settlement. Officers have advised this is likely to be an choice for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in america ought to Venezuela refuse to just accept them, however Rubio mentioned Bukele’s provide was for detainees of any nationality.
Rubio mentioned Bukele then went additional and mentioned his nation was prepared to just accept and to jail U.S. residents or authorized residents convicted of and imprisoned for violent crimes.
Human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a constant coverage for the therapy of asylum seekers and refugees and that such an settlement may not be restricted to violent criminals.
Manuel Flores, the secretary normal of the leftist opposition get together Farabundo Martí Nationwide Liberation Entrance, criticized the “safe third country” plan, saying it could sign that the area is Washington’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”
After assembly with Bukele, Rubio signed a memorandum of understanding together with his Salvadoran counterpart to advance U.S.-El Salvador civil nuclear cooperation. The doc might result in a extra formal deal on cooperation in nuclear energy and medication that the U.S. has with quite a few international locations.
Whereas Rubio was out of the U.S., staffers of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth have been instructed Monday to remain out of the company’s Washington headquarters after Musk introduced Trump had agreed with him to close the company.
1000’s of USAID staff already had been laid off and packages shut down. Rubio informed reporters in San Salvador that he was now the performing administrator of USAID however had delegated that authority so he wouldn’t be operating its day-to-day operations.
The change implies that USAID is not an impartial authorities company because it had been for many years — though its new standing will seemingly be challenged in courtroom — and will likely be run out of the State Division by division officers.
In his remarks, Rubio burdened that some and maybe many USAID packages would proceed within the new configuration however that the change was crucial as a result of the company had turn out to be unaccountable to the chief department and Congress.
Initially Revealed: February 4, 2025 at 8:12 AM EST
