El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, came into office in 2019 with a drive to do the impossible—turn the nation once known as the murder capital of the world into one of the safest in the Americas. He did that, of course, through the mass incarceration of gang members. The country and its people flourished, and voters rewarded him handsomely for it, reelecting him in a landslide last year. So he understands exactly what President Trump is trying to accomplish through his mass deportation operation—tackling the worst first—and is helping him like no other nation’s leader has offered so far.
Not only is El Salvador taking back its citizens who had been in the U.S. illegally, Bukele is offering to take in deportees of any nationality, including Americans—an “extraordinary offer,” though one Washington is unlikely to take up for U.S. citizens at least.
President Nayib Bukele "has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," Rubio said at a signing ceremony for an unrelated civil nuclear agreement with El Salvador's foreign minister.
"He's also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they're U.S. citizens or legal residents," Rubio said. He had just met with Bukele at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador for several hours.
After Rubio spoke, a U.S. official said the Trump administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens, but said Bukele's offer was significant. The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens and such a move would be met with significant legal challenges.
Rubio was visiting El Salvador to press a friendly government to do more to meet Trump administration demands for a major crackdown on immigration amid turmoil in Washington over the status of the government's main foreign development agency. (AP)
BREAKING: El Salvador agrees to take in criminals of any nationality including US convicts…. This will be their new home:
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 4, 2025
pic.twitter.com/8W4t1iTUNK
El Salvador locked up 40,000 gang members and cut its murder rate from 103 per 100K in 2015 (worst in the world) to 1.9 per 100K last year. US rate is 5 per 100K.
— Jared Taylor (@RealJarTaylor) February 10, 2025
This is how criminals are brought into the new mega prison.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has offered to take… pic.twitter.com/D6akx3NFpI
