WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to send American convicts – especially “animals” and violent repeat offenders − to foreign prisons, saying there are “many” countries willing to take them for a small fee.
“We’ve had other countries come to us saying we would love to do that, we would love to take your criminals … and we’ll be their jail,” Trump said during an Oval Office news briefing and signing ceremony for presidential actions. “And I’m only talking about the most severe cases.”
“If we had the option to get them out and let them be based in some other country at a fraction of the cost,” Trump would pounce on the opportunity, he added in his remarks to reporters. “And frankly, they could keep them, because these people are never going to be any good.”
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “very generous” an offer by El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to house violent U.S. convicts in his country’s jails. The State Department describes prison conditions in El Salvador as “harsh and dangerous.”
Trump said he was not sure whether it’s legal to banish American convicts to other countries. But the president added that the inmates would be “subject to the laws of our land” even if another country or private company is overseeing their detention.
“I’m just saying, if we had the legal right to do I would do it in a heartbeat,” Trump said. “I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now.”
USA TODAY reached out to the White House for further comment.
‘Numerous, many’ countries interested in taking America’s inmates, Trump says
Trump said “numerous, many” countries have signaled an interest in taking American convicts, though he didn’t specify which ones his administration might be taking to. He said it would be “a very small fee” compared to housing them in the United States.
Trump also gave some examples of the kinds of criminals he wants to banish, including violent repeat offenders who have been in and out of custody dozens of times. Also, he said, “the people that hit old ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking then walk down the street, the people that … take out a gun and shoot you for no reason at all.”
On Monday, El Salvador offered to house in its jails “dangerous criminals” from anywhere in the world deported by the United States, Rubio said after lengthy talks with the Central American country’s leader.
Rubio, who is on his first overseas tour as secretary of State, is also seeking support from countries in the region to take some of the large numbers of migrants that the Trump administration intends to deport.
Rubio met for almost three hours with Bukele and senior officials at Bukele’s residence on Lake Coatepeque outside the capital of San Salvador, where they agreed to go beyond El Salvador’s acceptance of its own deported citizens.
“Any … illegal immigrant in the United States who’s a dangerous criminal – MS-13, Tren de Aragua, whatever it may be – he has offered his jails, so we can send them and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said, referring to members of violent criminal gangs.
Rubio is also trying to secure “third country” agreements, in which nations accept citizens of other countries that will not accept deportees, Reuters reported.
According to the State Department website, “Overcrowding constitutes a serious threat to prisoners’ health and lives” in Salvadoran prisons. “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
Bukele said in a post on X that he had offered the U.S. “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,” Bukele said. “The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
(Reuters contributed.)
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