Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in San Salvador, El Salvador, February 3, 2025. (Official State Department photo by Freddie Everett)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said El Salvador’s president has offered to house “dangerous American criminals” in his country’s jail cells, in what Rubio called the most “extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.”
“He has offered to house in his jail dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents,” Rubio said, speaking of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during a signing ceremony in El Salvador’s capital.
It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration planned to send incarcerated U.S. citizens to Salvadoran jails, but Rubio said that the United States was “incredibly grateful” for the offer and that he had spoken to President Donald Trump about it.
Any attempt by the Trump administration to jail U.S. citizens in another country would be sure to face legal scrutiny.
Bukele’s hard-line anti-crime policies have greatly reduced the level of gang violence in the country, but they have also come under scrutiny from human rights organizations over allegations of indiscriminate arrests and police abuse. Salvadoran prisons have been criticized for overcrowding, poor access to food and water, and overall “inhumane conditions,” according to Human Rights Watch.
Bukele confirmed the offer in a social media post, saying El Salvador had offered the United States “the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.”
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee,” he wrote, referring to the country’s “Center for the Confinement of Terrorism” that opened in 2023 and has capacity for 40,000 prisoners. “The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.” Tech billionaire Elon Musk quickly endorsed the Bukele offer, saying, “Great idea!!”
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce called it an “extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country.” The agreement was one of multiple accords struck during the visit, said Bruce, including a promise from El Salvador to accept “violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country.”
The two countries also concluded a civil nuclear cooperation memorandum of understanding, and Rubio promised to issue a waiver to “unfreeze assistance to support the two countries’ joint work to detect suspicious travelers,” Bruce said.
