Secretary of State Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of all nationalities as well as 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.
‘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 was visiting El Salvador on Monday 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.
‘President Bukele agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who are in the United States unlawfully. He also promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country,’ State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
‘And in an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including U.S. citizens and legal residents,’ Bruce added.
Bruce called it a ‘tremendously successful meeting that will make both countries stronger, safer, and more prosperous.’
Rubio arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants leave from Panama for Colombia.
That came a day after Rubio delivered a warning to Panama that unless the government moved immediately to reduce or eliminate China‘s presence at the Panama Canal, the U.S. would act to do so.
Migration, though, was the main issue of the day as it will be for the next stops on his five-nation Central American tour of Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic after Panama and El Salvador.
President Donald Trump‘s administration prioritizes stopping people from making the journey to the United States and has worked with regional countries to boost immigration enforcement on their borders as well as to accept deportees from the United States.
One idea that was floated was to negotiate what Rubio announced Monday night – a so-called ‘safe third country’ agreement with El Salvador that would allow for non-Salvadorean migrants in the U.S. to be deporated to the nation.
Officials have suggested this might be an option for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in the United States should Venezuela refuse to accept them.
Ahead of Rubio’s announcement, Bukele said it was a broad agreement ‘that does not have precedent in the history of the relationship, not just of the United States with El Salvador but rather I think in Latin America.’
Human rights activists have warned, however, that El Salvador lacks a consistent policy for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and that such an agreement might not be limited to violent criminals.
Manuel Flores, the secretary general of the leftist opposition party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, criticized any such plan, saying it would signal that the region is Washington’s ‘backyard to dump the garbage.’
The deportation flight Rubio watched being loaded in Panama City was carrying migrants detained by Panamanian authorities after illegally crossing the Darien Gap from Colombia.
The State Department says such deportations send a message of deterrence.
The U.S. has provided Panama with financial assistance to the tune of almost $2.7 million in flights and tickets since an agreement was signed to fund them.
Rubio was on the tarmac for the departure of the flight, which was taking 32 men and 11 women back to Colombia.
It’s unusual for a secretary of state to personally witness such a law enforcement operation, especially in front of cameras.
‘Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era,’ Rubio said, speaking afterward in a nearby building. ‘It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognize that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimized along the way, and it´s not good for anyone.’
Monday´s deportation flight came as Trump has been threatening action against nations that will not accept flights of their nationals from the United States, and he briefly hit Colombia with penalties last week for initially refusing to accept two flights.
Panama has been more cooperative and has allowed flights of third-country deportees to land and sent migrants back before they reach the United States.
‘This is an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, of mass migration, which is destructive and destabilizing,’ Rubio said. ‘And it would have been impossible to do without the strong partnership we have here with our friends and allies in Panama. And we´re going to continue to do it.’
His trip comes amid a sweeping freeze in U.S. foreign assistance and stop-work orders that have shut down U.S.-funded programs targeting illegal migration and crime in Central American countries.
The State Department said Sunday that Rubio had approved waivers for certain critical programs in countries he is visiting, but details of those were not immediately available.