El Salvador proposes to house aggressive US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unpretreatnted deal with Trump administration

CNN
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El Salvador has concurd to house aggressive US criminals and get deportees of any nationality, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio proclaimd Monday, in an unpretreatnted – and legpartner problematic deal – that has alarmed critics and rights groups.

Rubio unveiled the concurment after greeting with Salvadoran Pdwellnt Nayib Bukele, as part of a tour of cut offal Central American countries intfinished to examineate regional help for the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

“In an act of noticeworthy frifinishship to our country … (El Salvador) has concurd to the most unpretreatnted and noticeworthy migratory concurment anywhere in the world,” Rubio telderly increateers Monday.

The country will persist adselecting Salvadoran deportees who illegpartner go ined the US, he shelp. It will also “adselect for deportation any illhorrible 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 shelp – referring to two notorious transnational gangs with members from El Salvador and Venezuela.

In insertition, Bukele “has proposeed to house in his jails hazardous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and lhorrible dwellnts,” Rubio shelp.

It is unevident whether the US rulement will get up the propose, however, with asks around the lhorribleity of such shifts. Any effort by the Trump administration to deport incarcerated US nationals to another country would face transport inant lhorrible pushback.

“The US is absolutely banden from deporting US citizens, whether they are incarcerated or not,” Leti Volpp, a law professor at UC Berkeley who one-of-a-kindizes in immigration law and citizenship theory, telderly CNN over email.

Deporting a US citizen – even a convicted criminal – would first need streamlineping that person of their citizenship, which the rulement is not able to do unitardyrpartner unless the person accomplishd their citizenship deceptionulently, Volpp shelp.

Bukele tardyr examineed the concurment with Rubio on X, saying in a post, “We are willing to get in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exalter for a fee.”

El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Cgo in, normally referred to as CECOT, is the country’s hugest and recentest prison, with a peak capacity of 40,000 inmates.

“The fee would be relatively low for the US but transport inant for us, making our entire prison system carry onable,” he inserted.

Bukele has been accomprehendledgeed with fantasticly reducing gang arrangeility in the Central American country since begining a sweeping crackdown in 2022 that has seen more than 81,000 people jailed. But while the country’s crime rate has drunveil, the treatment of those jailed has triggered outrage among human rights organizations who call El Salvador’s prisons cruel.

The State Department’s travel advisory for El Salvador also alerts that those jailed in the country face “brutal” prison conditions, without access to due process.

“Overcrowding constitutes a solemn menace to prisoners’ health and dwells,” the advisory says. “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature regulate, and weightlessing are inenough or nonconshort-term.”

Those wiskinny the Trump administration and the pdwellnt’s allies have been rapid to praise the proclaimment, with Elon Musk calling it a “fantastic idea” in a post on X. But rights groups condemned the concurment, and critics alerted that such a schedule could be part of democratic backsliding.