Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from US of any nationality, including Americans


Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from US of any nationality, including Americans

By MATTHEW LEE Updated 7:08 AM CST, February 4, 2025 SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left El Salvador on Tuesday with an agreement from that country’s president to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States. President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said after meeting with Bukele at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador for several hours late Monday. “We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said of migrants of all nationalities detained in the United States. “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 friendly government to do more to meet President Donald Trump’s demands for a major crackdown on immigration. Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.” He said his country would accept only “convicted criminals” and would charge a fee 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 government, responded on his X platform, “Great idea!!” After Rubio spoke, a U.S. official said Trump’s Republican administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens but called Bukele’s offer significant. The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens, and such a move would be met with significant legal challenges. The State Department describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” On its current country information webpage it says, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”