Why is Trump trying to ship US citizens and immigrants to El Salvador?
The Trump administration appears keen on the idea of sending convicted immigrants and U.S. citizens to El Salvadoran prisons.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X Tuesday morning that he had a “very productive meeting” with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele regarding his commitment to “accept and incarcerate criminals from any country including” those from “gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.”
“In an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including US citizens and legal residents,” he wrote.
Rubio’s meeting comes after Bukele extended to President Donald Trump an offer to house convicted immigrants and U.S. citizens in his newly built detention center for a “relatively low” fee.
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee,” Bukele wrote on X Monday.
CECOT, El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, has a maximum capacity of 40,000. Critics have already flagged the prison for civil rights abuses, citing strict control and isolation of people who are incarcerated.
Bukele was elected president in 2022 and has been credited with reducing gang violence and restoring safety in El Salvador. But his success hinges on the mass incarceration of more than 81,000 people.
Human rights groups have documented extreme overcrowding and torture in El Salvador’s prisons, and access to food, drinking water, and health care is sometimes nonexistent.
Trump tried to establish a similar agreement with El Salvador during his first term when the two countries signed the “safe third country” agreement in 2019. In part, El Salvador agreed to receive non-Salvadorians detained in the United States, but the deal was never implemented due to COVID-19.
Plenty of red flags have been raised since Trump began his second term and started implementing his mass deportation efforts—including his attempt to end birthright citizenship.
But immigration experts have been pointing to the illegality of shipping U.S. citizens and immigrants to another country.
“The U.S. is absolutely prohibited from deporting U.S. citizens, whether they are incarcerated or not,” Leti Volpp, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in immigration law and citizenship theory, told CNN.
Similarly, Trump announced on Jan. 29 that he will house detained immigrants in Guantanamo Bay, the infamous military prison in Cuba that was used to house high-profile terrorists. The prison previously housed Haitian immigrants under the Bush administration.
The first group of immigrants was sent to Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, on U.S. soil, sanctuary cities held anti-ICE protests over the weekend, and pro-immigrant businesses closed their doors Monday to honor “Day Without Immigrants.” But in contrast, people have been arrested for imitating ICE agents to harass people of color.
And despite reports about ICE using excessive force on senior citizens, officials are still promoting deportations on social media.
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