El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal

[Polybius]

Source: 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.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/americas/el-salvador-migrant-deal-marco-rubio-intl-hnk/index.html

[SunSeeker]

1. OMG. There is no way El Salvador has the facilities for this.

This will result in many deaths. Horrific.

[LisaL]

2. And he plans to send US citizens into another country?

[reACTIONary]

12. No, that is not the plan. This is for deportation of ....

.... unauthorized aliens whose own country refuses to repatriate.

[LeftInTX]

3. They opened one of the largest prisons in the world in 2023. It's about 1/3 full.

The Terrorism Confinement Center (Spanish: Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, abbreviated and commonly referred to as CECOT) is a maximum security prison located in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The prison was built in late 2022 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown in El Salvador and was opened by the Salvadoran government in January 2023.

CECOT received its first 2,000 prisoners in February 2023, and as of 11 June 2024, it has a population of 14,532 inmates.[2] With capacity for 40,000 inmates, CECOT is the largest prison in Latin America and one of the largest in the world by prisoner capacity. CECOT–as well as the gang crackdown as a whole–have been the subject of international media attention, receiving praise for the Salvadoran government as well as criticism of alleged human rights violations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_Confinement_Center

[Lulu KC]

4. Just a bit from the Wikipedia page about Bukele

"Meanwhile, Republican congressmen such as Tom Cotton, Matt Gaetz, and Marco Rubio have praised Bukele's policies on crime.[233][234]"

Some Western journalists have compared Bukele to Trump, citing Bukele's style of governance, government policies, rhetoric, and criticism of the press as similar to Trump's.[322][341][342][343] In 2019, Foreign Policy's Melissa Vida referred to Bukele as "El Salvador's Trump"[344] and Jacobin's Hilary Goodfriend called him "the Donald Trump of Central America".[345] Bukele was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump after his victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[346][347] The Economist has described Bukele as politically "hard right" and compared his policies and ideological views to Milei, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and former Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast.[348]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayib_Bukele

[DENVERPOPS]

5. Awesome

For starters, how about sending the J6th Insurrectionists.........

Followed by Trump, His entire administration, advisers, and appointees, followed by Every Republican U.S. Senator and House member.

The perfect imprisonment for the entire Lot.......And tell the prison, if a UBER rich Republican Oligarch tries to bribe/bail any of them out, the prison gets a reward of THAT person becoming a prisoner, along with 10 million more than the bribe he offered.......

[JoseBalow]

6. CECOT

A fascist's wet dream











?resize=1920,1440

[Polybius]

7. Wow, that's crazy

And damn, nearly every one is covered in tattoos.

[LisaL]

8. Hard to imagine that US citizens would last a long time in there.

[Captain Zero]

9. Disappearances coming soon

To a former democracy near you.

[reACTIONary]

11. Why do you think that US citizens will be sent there? This..

... is an arrangement for deporting unauthorized aliens, not incarceration of US citizens.

[Red Mountain]

14. You expect no mistakes?

It will happen. Just like with the death penalty but with FAR less oversight or legal process.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

16. Because their statement made it clear that they are

willing to take in incarcerated American citizens as well: '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.' And, 'Bukele later confirmed the agreement with Rubio on X, saying in a post, “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”' Sure it would be illegal, but who is going to enforce that? Also, it is important to note the "fee" part that the headlines all seem to leave out. They have a giant prison that is only 1/3 full and we have money and a bunch of people we want to lock up.... It is sad how transactional these people are with human lives. You'd think that people who call themselves Christians...ah, who am I kidding?

[reACTIONary]

17. Thanks for that clarification....

..... I did not catch that.

It would obviously be illegal, and I would expect it to be opposed in court. So I think the court system and advocacy groups like the ACLU would keep it from happening.

But, as you might point out, the current regime is not exactly into respect for the rule of law.

[LeftInTX]

20. That's totally illegal. Bukele may have offered, but Rubio should not have repeated it.

As of now, some immigrants who were arrested in the ICE raids since, who are in the country illegally are now out of detention. That is because they have not committed crimes or any crimes they committed were very minor. Some have ankle monitors. The ones that are free on bail have "check-in" appointments with ICE. This is despite the passage of the Laken-Riley Act. So, despite the fact "indefinite detention" is now a law


The only way a US citizen can be deported is if they are stripped on their citizenship.

Some migrants arrested in Trump's immigration crackdown have been released back into the U.S.
Space constraints and court orders have led ICE to release migrants on monitoring programs after they’re arrested.

The Trump administration aggressively publicized the arrests of more than 8,000 immigrants by federal agents since Inauguration Day, with the promise that those detained would be part of a historic mass deportation. But NBC News has learned that some have already been released back into the United States on a monitoring program, according to five sources familiar with the operations.

Since he took office, President Donald Trump and his allies have promoted immigration operations in cities like Chicago and New York, where agents across federal agencies were called in to increase the number of arrests.

But arresting more people inside the United States on allegations of immigration violations means they need to be held somewhere. And significant space constraints in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities — and federal court orders forbidding indefinite detention — have forced the agency to release some of those arrested in the roundups rather than hold them until deportation.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/people-caught-trump-immigration-crackdown-released-us-rcna186360

It is also illegal to deport a non-citizen to a country where they are not a citizen, unless there is some arrangement and the deportee agrees. (For instance, let's say Mexico would accept asylum cases from Venezuela and the deportee agrees. Some Cubans that are in Gitmo are currently seeking asylum in Canada and have been sent there. They were apprehended at sea)

However, there are a few countries, such as Venezuela that are refusing to accept their own citizens.
This statement is just a scare tactic to get countries like Venezuela to accept their own deportees.

There is also a Venezuelan gang: Tren de Aragua here in the US. Many of them have been arrested on violent crimes such as murder and gun trafficking. However, they first must go to court in the US and serve their sentence here. It is fool hardy to deport violent criminals prior to serving a sentence. If they receive a life sentence and they are really bad, they go to Super Max. If something goes wrong with the court case and they are found "not guilty", have a plea deal or receive a short sentence, then it's a grey area.

If someone is a stateless person, it is also a grey area.

I really think this is a scare tactic to get countries to accept their deportees.

[Polybius]

21. I wouldn't wanna be a correction officer there

Yikes.

[highplainsdem]

13. Musk tweeted last night about liking this idea, and some of his followers are saying they want to see

Fauci, Pelosi and other favorite targets sent there.

[Red Mountain]

15. Musk better watch out....

the worm always turns.

[LeftInTX]

19. That's insane!

[Ray Bruns]

10. Hey El Salvador. May I suggest you get your money upfront.

Because if you don’t, you will never see a dime.

[Kid Berwyn]

18. They used to take Bitcoin.

Wonder what happened?