"Unprecedented" Prisoners May Be Sent to El Salvador... Agreement Reached for Paid Proxy Detention

U.S. and El Salvador Reach Agreement
on Housing Criminals and Deportees
Bukele: "We Will Receive Payment"

On April 25, 2020 (local time), police gathered inmates wearing masks to prevent COVID-19 at Isalco Prison in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, and monitored them. El Salvador reached an unprecedented agreement with the Trump administration on the 3rd (local time) to house violent criminals from the United States and deportees of all nationalities. (AP·Yonhap News)

The small Central American country of El Salvador has reached an unprecedented agreement with the Trump administration to accept violent criminals from the United States and deportees of all nationalities.

According to foreign media such as CNN and ABC in the U.S., U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on the 3rd (local time), "As an act demonstrating extraordinary friendship toward the United States, (El Salvador) has agreed to an unprecedented immigration agreement worldwide."

Secretary Rubio is currently on a tour of Latin American countries to promote the White House's immigration policy. During this process, he met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The details of this agreement were announced immediately after the meeting concluded.

Rubio also explained that El Salvador will continue to accept the repatriation of its nationals who have entered the U.S. illegally.

He said, "If an illegal resident in the U.S. is a criminal, they will be deported regardless of nationality," adding, "Members of notorious international criminal organizations such as 'MS-13' or 'Tren de Aragua' will also be accepted." These groups are known as violent gangs operating in El Salvador and Venezuela.

The Bukele administration introduced strong emergency measures in 2022. Police can arrest gang suspects without a warrant, and it is known that more than 80,000 people have been incarcerated so far. At the same time, El Salvador is notorious for poor prison conditions and human rights violations. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have argued that a significant number of the 80,000 detainees may include many innocent cases.

President Bukele also confirmed the agreement on X (formerly Twitter), stating, "We will only accept criminals who have been convicted (including U.S. citizens), and for this, we will receive payment in exchange for housing them in our 'Mega Prison (CECOT).'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.