El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has offered to take in U.S. prisoners and, while it is unclear whether Donald Trump‘s administration will accept, Newsweek has broken down what you need to know.
Newsweek has contacted the State Department, via online contact form, for comment.
Why It Matters
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Bukele had offered to accept deportees from the U.S., regardless of nationality, Rubio called it the “most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.”
A deal in which U.S. citizens would be transferred to foreign prisons would require the navigation of American and international laws, as well as prisoners’ rights and the conditions of confinement.
While the details of Bukele’s proposed agreement remain unclear, this is what we know so far.
What To Know
Rubio met with Bukele at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador before announcing their agreement on Monday night, the Associated Press reported.
Speaking about migrants and deportees, Rubio said: “We can send them and he will put them in his jails.” He added: “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement: “Multiple agreements were struck to fight the waves of illegal mass migration currently destabilizing the entire region. President Bukele agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who were 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.”
“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. Secretary Rubio and President Bukele concluded a civil nuclear cooperation MOU, which was signed by the Secretary and Salvadoran Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco hours later,” Bruce added.
Gang members stand in their cell in the high-security detention center “Center for the Forced Detention of Terrorism” (Cecot), photographed 10 December 2024, El Salvador.
AP
Bukele has confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying: “We have offered the United States of America 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. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
The American government has not yet said whether it plans to go ahead with sending U.S. prisoners to El Salvador, but Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who Trump has appointed to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), shared Bukele’s post with the caption: “Great idea!!”
Can US Citizens Be Incarcerated Abroad?
The current precedent for U.S. citizens being incarcerated abroad is if they have committed crimes abroad or under extradition requests.
The U.S. Department of State tells Americans: “Understand that you are subject to the local laws and regulations while visiting or living in the country—follow them.”
“One of the highest priorities of the Department of State and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad is to provide assistance to U.S. citizens incarcerated abroad,” the department says on its website, where it lists the services it provides to detained U.S. citizens.
These include visiting detained U.S. citizens regularly, providing a list of local attorneys who speak English, contacting the friends and family of the detained person and providing a general overview of the local criminal justice system.
Americans being forcibly transferred to foreign jails could face major constitutional challenges, which could include using the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prevents states from engaging in arbitrary or unfair transfers and the Sixth Amendment, which is the right to counsel and access to courts.
How El Salvador’s Cecot Prison Treats Criminals
In a 2021 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report on El Salvador, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman said: “Many prisons had inadequate sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, medical care, and lighting. Inmates experienced gastrointestinal illnesses and skin problems due to poor water quality.”
It also said “overcrowding was a serious threat to prisoners’ health and welfare” and described gangs’ presence in prisons as “prevalent.”
Last November, CNN published a report on Cecot, writing that the “hard-hearted treatment of men is on full display throughout Cecot.”
CNN got rare, exclusive access inside El Salvador’s Cecot prison, where some of the country’s most notorious gang members are held. David Culver tours the controversial high-security facility with prison officials, capturing firsthand accounts from inmates https://t.co/haOFa7um37 pic.twitter.com/CxJwvJB6ci
— CNN (@CNN) November 14, 2024
Although the report described group cells built to hold around 80 inmates as “meticulously clean,” it also reported no sheets, pillows or mattresses on the metal bunks, an open toilet and a bucket for washing.
The men are reportedly kept in their cells for 23-and-a-half hours a day, not allowed to work, read or play cards. They eat meatless meals in their cells and are only allowed to leave for group exercise or Bible readings.
Conditions in El Salvadorian prisons changed after Bukele cracked down hard on crime, declaring a state of emergency in March 2022 which led to the slashing of homicide rates and the incarceration of 2 percent of the adult population.
What People Are Saying
El Salvadoran politician Manuel Flores, from the secretary general of the leftist opposition party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, criticized the plan, saying it would turn El Salvador into Washington’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”
In a speech to House Republicans last week, Trump spoke about wanting “violent criminals” and “repeat offenders” out of America.
He said: “We also have many violent criminals in our country, however, that did not necessarily come here illegally but have been arrested 30 times, 35 times, 41, 42 times … for murder [and] other heinous charges. I don’t want these violent repeat offenders in our country any more than I want illegal aliens from other countries in.”
What Happens Next
Rubio will continue on his trip throughout Latin America until February 6, the final results of which are yet to be seen.
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