What You Might Have Missed
- Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele team up to explore a bold new idea: exporting the world’s worst criminals.
- The U.S. quietly transferred 13 convicted Mexican drug traffickers back to Mexico, saving taxpayers millions.
- Federal policy rooted in a 1977 treaty may now fuel global super-prison diplomacy.
By Samuel Lopez – USA Herald
https://x.com/RealUSAHerald
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a dramatic shift that combines geopolitical strategy with prison reform, today President Donald Trump met with El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele — widely known as the “world’s coolest dictator” — to discuss expanding an international network of prisons that would house the world’s most dangerous criminals.
Their discussion, which took place on April 14, 2025, came on the heels of a separate but related announcement from the Department of Justice: that on Friday, the United States Department of Justice transferred 13 Mexican nationals with drug convictions to Mexico pursuant to the U.S.-Mexico International Prisoner Transfer Treaty, which dates back to 1977; a longstanding treaty that has now taken center stage in global criminal justice policy.
All 13 inmates transferred on Friday were serving sentences relating to the distribution of controlled substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. These inmates will complete the remainder of their sentences in Mexico under the terms of the treaty.
Each of the inmates requested that they be returned to Mexico and their transfer requests were approved by both the United States and Mexican governments. This decision may have spared them a harsher fate, as today’s meeting between President Trump and El Salvador’s President Bukele suggests that future transfers could involve relocation to the infamous CECOT supermax prison in El Salvador.
The move wasn’t just symbolic. It eliminated an estimated $3 million in U.S. taxpayer burden by removing the need to house these inmates for the remaining 75 years of their combined sentences.
According to Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, “The Justice Department’s International Prisoner Transfer Program… enhances offender rehabilitation, reduces incarceration costs, and relieves overcrowding in federal prisons.”
But this isn’t just about economics. There are whispers of a paradigm shift, with Trump and Bukele exploring options that would extend El Salvador’s controversial CECOT supermax prison program to house violent U.S. offenders abroad — and possibly even certain American citizens.
What might have gone unnoticed in the bureaucratic shuffle now reads more like a prelude to something much larger. During the Trump-Bukele meeting, the two leaders reportedly agreed to lay the foundation for more such transfers, and even the construction of new prisons on Salvadoran soil to accommodate a growing population of deported criminals from the U.S. and beyond.
According to inside sources, Attorney General Pam Bondi is now exploring legal strategies that could pave the way for banishing U.S. citizens convicted of “egregious” crimes, leveraging rarely-invoked legal doctrines. If found lawful, this would mark an unprecedented expansion of U.S. penal strategy.
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